TO 


William  Cullen  Bryant, 


AT    EIGHTY     YEARS, 


FROM    HIS 


Friends  and  Countrymen. 


NEW  YORK : 

SCRIBNER,    ARMSTRONG    &    CO. 

743  and  745  Broadway. 

1876. 


II  2 

.B81lt 


FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


i'HK  BRYANT  VA31< 


MADK  BY  TIFFANY* 


■ 


TO 


William  Cullen  Bryant, 


AT    EIGHTY    YEARS, 


FROM    HIS 


Friends  and  Countrymen. 


NEW  YORK : 

SCRIBNER,    ARMSTRONG    &    CO. 

743  and  745  Broadway. 

1876. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/wicullenbOObrya 


PRESENTATION 


WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT, 

June  20th,  at  8  P.M.,  Chickering  Hall. 


Music. 


Reception  of  the  Commemorative  Vase  from  the 
Makers  by  the  Committee. 


Music. 


Presentation  to  Mr.  Bryant,  with  an 
Address  by  the  Chairman. 

Address  by  Mr.  Bryant. 


Music. 


Opportunity  for  the  audience  to  examine  the  Vase. 


Mr.  George  William  Warren  presented  his  services 
at  the  Organ. 


BRYANT  TESTIMONIAL   COMMITTEE. 


SAMUEL  OSGOOD,  Chairman. 

DANIEL   HUNTINGTON,  HENRY  W.  BELLOWS, 

JOHN  TAYLOR  JOHNSTON,      HOWARD  CROSBY, 

BAYARD  TAYLOR,  THEODORE  ROOSEYELT, 

JOHN  BIGELOW,  FREDERICK  DE  PEYSTER, 

WILLIAM  H.  APPLETON,  HENRY  C.  POTTER, 

ASHER  B.   DURAND,  WILLIAM  ADAMS, 

JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE,  A.  A.  LOW, 

WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS,  FRANKLIN  H.  DELANO, 

GEORGE  RIPLEY,  WILLIAM  J.   HOPITN, 

HENRY  E.  PIERREPONT,  J.   G.   HOLLAND, 

FREDERICK  STURGES,  JOHN  A.  WEEKS, 

J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN,  HENRY  W.  FOOTE,  Boston. 

S.  J.  TILDEN,  JAMES  T.   FIELDS, 

F.  A.  P.  BARNARD,  JAMES  R.  OSGOOD, 

R.  S.  STORRS,  NOAH  PORTER,      New  Haven. 

BENJAMIN  H.  FIELD,  CHAS  R.  INGERSOLL,     " 

EDWIN    HARWOOD New  Haven. 

JAMES  L.  CLAGHORN Philadelphia. 

GEORGE  W.   CHILDS 

JOHN  WELSH   

JAMES  II.  LATROBE  Baltimore. 

EDWIN  C.   LARNED Chicago. 

ROBERT    COLLYER 

WM.  G.  ELIOT St.  Louis. 

CARL   SCHURZ 

WILLIAM  T.  SHERMAN Washington. 

HENRY   PROBASCO Cincinnati. 

OGDEN    HOFFMAN San  Francisco. 

GEO.   F.   HOAR Worcester. 

ALEXANDER  H.  BULLOCK 

MARK    HOPKINS WlLLIAMSTOWN. 

J.   R.   IIAWLEY Hartford. 

GEORGE  CABOT  WARD,  Treasurer. 

WENTWORTH  S.   BUTLER,  Secretary. 


PRESENTATION 

OF 

THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

JUNE  20TH,  1876. 


OPENING  REMARKS  OF  THE  CHAIRMAN. 

"  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  This  occasion,  that 
calls  us  together  to  do  honor  to  our  distinguished 
guest,  is  of  a  most  genial  and  festive  nature,  yet 
none  the  less,  on  that  account,  may  we  regard  it  as 
having  its  serious  aspects.  Surely  a  life  so  long 
and  so  faithful  as  his,  lifts  us  up  by  its  very  presence, 
and  I  know  that  it  is  proof  alike  of  respect  for  his 
character  and  for  your  wishes  and  your  disposition, 
to  open  these  proceedings  devoutly.  These  verses 
are  from  hymns  in  which  our  poet  himself  serves 
us  as  our  chaplain  : 

"  Hear  this  call  to  our  nation  to  give  glory  to 

the  God  of  our  fathers,  and  to  His  beloved  Son  : 

"  '  Oh,  North,  with  all  thy  vales  of  green  ! 
Oh,  South,  with  all  thy  palms  ! 
From  peopled  towns  and  fields  between, 
Uplift  the  voice  of  psalms. 


6  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

Raise,  Ancient  East !   the  anthem  high, 
And  let  the  youthful  West  reply. 

"  '  Lo  !  in  the  clouds  of  Heaven  appears 
God's  well-beloved  Son  ; 
He  brings  a  train  of  brighter  years ; 

His  Kingdom  is  begun  ; 
He  comes  a  guilty  world  to  bless 
With  mercy,  truth,  and  righteousness.' 

"  Again  let  us  follow  our  poet  in  his  prayer  for 
wisdom  from  above  : 

"  'Mighty  One,  before  whose  face 
Wisdom  had  her  glorious  seat, 
When  the  orbs  that  people  space 
Sprang  to  birth  beneath  thy  feet  ! 

"  *  Source  of  Truth,  whose  beams  alone 
Light  the  mighty  world  of  mind  ! 
God  of  Love,  who,  from  thy  throne, 
Watchest  over  all  mankind  ! 

"  '  Shed  on  these  who,  in  thy  name, 
Teach  the  way  of  truth  and  right, 
Shed  that  Love's  undying  flame, 
Shed  that  Wisdom's  guiding  light.' 

"  Now,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  with  God's  bless- 
ing upon  us,  let  us  turn  to  the  first  business  of  the 
evening,  and  receive  from  the  makers  the  beauti- 
ful work  of  art  which  is  to  be  presented  to  our 
guest.     This,  indeed,  is  not   the  harvest-time    of 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  7 

nature,  and  the  fields  are  not  yet  ripe  for  the  sickle 
and  the  scythe  ;  but  art  has  all  seasons  for  her  own, 
and  here  a  rich  fruit  is  brought  to  us  from  her  ever- 
teeming  fields,  by  the  hands  of  the  producers 
themselves.  Honor  to  the  skilled  and  industrious 
workmen,  and  let  honor  go  with  their  hire  to  fill 
out  their  just  reward. 

"  Mr.  Whitehouse  and  Gentlemen,  Artists  and' 
Workmen,  we  now  look  to  you  to  unvail  your 
work,  and  to  allow  the  Bryant  Testimonial  Com- 
mittee to  receive  it  from  your  hands  for  its  high 
purpose." 

THE  REMARKS  OF  MR.  WHITEHOUSE,  THE  DE- 
SIGNER OF  THE  VASE,  ON  PRESENTING  IT  TO 
THE   COMMITTEE. 

"  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Commit- 
tee :  We  are  here  to-night  at  your  request  to 
formally  make  over  to  you  the  Testimonial  Vase  on 
which  we  have  been  so  long  engaged ;  and  the 
house  I  represent  has  seen  fit  to  place  it  in  my 
hands  for  that  purpose. 

"  Before  doing  so,  I  must  thank  you  in  the  name 
of  our  firm  for  having  intrusted  us  with  so  im- 
portant and  interesting  a  piece  of  work  ;  interest- 
ing indeed,  for  no  testimonial  piece  was  ever 
made  in  this  country  in  which,  so  far  as  the  silver- 


8  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

smith  community  is  concerned,  such  wide-spread 
interest  has  been  shown.  One  cause  of  this  was 
the  loner  roll  of  distinguished  names  of  which  the 
Committee  is  formed  ;  the  other  and  chief  cause  was 
the  knowledge  that  it  was  to  be  presented  to  so 
upright  and  beloved  a  citizen,  to  so  charming, 
truthful,  and  distinguished  a  poet.  We  are  all 
proud  of  our  connection  with  it,  from  the  hon- 
ored head  of  our  house  to  the  very  boy  who 
helped  to  place  the  silver  in  the  crucible.  Every 
stroke  of  the  pencil,  every  thought,  every  touch 
of  the  modeling  stick,  every  blow  of  the  hammer 
has  been  indeed  a  work  of  love. 

"  I  must  also  thank  you  in  behalf  of  the  actual 
workers  on  this  vase,  who,  at  your  invitation,  are 
here  to-night.  This,  to  me,  is  a  very  pleasing 
feature  of  the  evening's  programme,  for  it  is  a 
feature  too  often  overlooked.  The  art-worker  in 
silver — the  successful  art- worker  in  silver — must 
possess  ability  of  the  highest  order.  He  is  just  as 
much  an  artist  in  his  particular  line  as  the  painter 
or  sculptor.  He  is  equally  enthusiastic,  bringing 
up  with  the  hammer  from  the  dead  surface  of  the 
metal  objects  of  life  and  inspiration  ;  day  by  day 
and  week  by  week  his  interest  growing  with  his 
work  ;  going  home  at  night  to  the  equally  interested 
and  anxious  wife,  who  in  her  pride  and  innocence 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  9 

thinks  the  time  has  come  at  last,  and  soon  the 
town  will  ring  with  the  praises  of  her  John.  But 
alas,  false  hopes  !  the  piece  is  finished,  the  presen- 
tation takes  place,  the  work  is  admired,  the  giver 
and  receiver  are  both  glorified  ;  but  John,  poor 
John,  he  is  never  even  dreamed  of,  and  the  wife 
can't  understand  it  ;  she  thinks  there  must  be 
something  wrong.  You,  gentlemen,  have  been  the 
first  in  this  country  to  look  beyond  the  surface  ; 
you  have  torn  down  this  vail  of  seclusion,  and 
brought  the  art-workman  and  his  merit  to  the 
front.  In  this  particular  instance,  the  silent  con- 
sciousness of  having  been  engaged  on  a  testimonial 
to  the  father  of  our  country's  poetry,  was  in  itself 
reward  enough  ;  and  we  thank  you,  every  one  of 
us,  firm,  designer,  modeler,  maker,  and  chaser,  for 
having  given  us  the  opportunity  to  lay  this  our  one 
small  green  leaf  tribute  at  his  feet. 

"  Gentlemen,  in  the  name  of  Tiffany  &  Co.,  I 
make  over  to  you  the  Bryant  Testimonial  Vase." 

DR.  OSGOOD'S  ADDRESS  TO  THE  MAKERS  OF  THE 

VASE. 

"  Mr.  Whitehouse  and  Fellow- Artists  and  Work- 
men :  Your  speech  is  short,  but  your  art  is  long, 
and  this  beautiful  work  of  your  heads  and  hands 
speaks   louder    than    any    ambitious    words,    and 


IO  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

speaks  for  itself.  In  the  name  of  the  Bryant  Testi- 
monial Committee  I  thank  you  for  your  presence 
here  to-night,  with  this  masterpiece  of  your  taste 
and  skill.  The  design  is  apt  and  original,  worthy 
of  the  subject  and  the  occasion.  The  work  is 
careful  and  exquisite,  and  every  line  and  feature  is 
proof  to  all,  of  what  some  of  us  know  from  obser- 
vation, that  heart  as  well  as  time  has  gone  into 
your  toil,  and  that  you  have  entered  into  the  spirit 
of  this  commemorative  gift  to  the  patriarch  of 
American  letters.  I  thank  you  each  and  all  ;  and  I 
thank  also  your  employers,  who  have  done  their 
part  with  such  courtesy,  enterprise,  and  public 
spirit.  These  gentlemen  are  supposed  to  under- 
stand their  business,  as  we  have  here  ample  proof, 
and  we  all  know  that  their  prosperous  house  will 
not  suffer  by  their  generous  execution  of  the  order 
committed  to  them  ;  but  it  is  cheering  to  know 
that  they  interpret  business  on  so  high  a  plane,  and 
carry  into  it  so  much  of  the  sentiment  of  beauty, 
and  the  heart  of  patriotism  and  humanity. 

"  This  personal  acknowledgment  is  cordial  and 
just,  but  it  is  not  all  that  it  is  proper  for  me  to  say 
to  you  now.  You  have  not  only  done  honor  to 
yourselves,  but  to  your  art — even  to  the  ancient  and 
honorable  art  of  the  goldsmith  and  the  silversmith 
— and  you  have  done  your  part  to  put  it  where  it 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  I  I 

belongs  in  the  fellowship  of  useful  and  beautiful 
arts.  All  the  arts  belong  together,  and  it  has  been 
well  said  that  art  is  one,  while  its  instruments  are 
many.  Art  is  one,  and  its  aim  is  to  give  life  and 
force  to  knowledge,  and  to  render  into  action  the 
science  which  is  light.  The  Spirit  of  the  living 
God  who  called  the  Cosmos  out  of  Chaos,  and 
who  is  ever  making  the  many  into  one,  is  the 
great  Master  of  Arts,  and  has  given  your  craft  of 
metal-workers  especial  commission,  as  when  of  old 
He  called  Bezaleel  the  son  of  Uri  to  his  service 
and  said  :  '  I  have  filled  him  with  the  spirit  of  God, 
in  wisdom  and  in  understanding,  and  in  knowledge 
and  in  all  manner  of  workmanship,  to  devise 
cunning  works,  to  work  in  gold  and  in  silver,  and 
in  brass,  and  in  cutting  of  stones  to  set  them,  and 
in  carving  of  timber,  to  work  in  all  manner  of 
workmanship.'  Why  wonder  at  the  consecration 
of  your  craft  ?  Why  make  light  of  your  art, 
which  now,  as  in  the  time  of  the  old  tabernacle 
and  temple,  can  so  embody  and  interpret  the 
affections  of  the  household,  the  loyalty  of  the 
nation,  the  wisdom  of  the  schools,  and  the  sancti- 
ties of  the  altar?  How  much  of  the  mind  and 
heart  of  mankind  has  been  perpetuated  in  gold 
and  silver  and  bronze,  and  precious  stones !  From 
the  plain  gold  ring  and  the  christening  token  to 


12  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

the  seal  of  covenants  and  cup  of  Communion, 
how  your  work  rises  in  dignity,  and  lifts  the  metals 
of  the  earth  toward  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
image  of  God !  How  much  of  high  history  lives 
in  metal-work,  and  how  many  noble  statues  of 
sages,  prophets,  and  heroes  rise  before  us  to-night 
as  we  add  this  memorial  work  of  yours  to  the 
treasures  of  art  and  to  the  annals  of  culture ! 

"  How  nobly  your  art  is  ministering  now  to  the 
harmony  of  nations  at  our  great  Centennial  jubilee 
of  industry  and  taste,  and  bringing  offerings  in  brass 
and  iron,  silver  and  gold,  from  all  lands  to  join  their 
gifts  to  yours  !  How  grand  is  the  conception  of 
the  monument  of  Liberty,  which  France  asks  to 
place  upon  an  island  in  our  harbor — the  colossal 
statue  with  hand  uplifting  the  torch  which  throws 
cheer  upon  the  sailor's  benighted  way,  and  the 
head  crowned  with  rays  that  flash  light  upon  the 
dark  waters,  and  inspire  hope  in  all  who  despair ! 
God  guard  beautiful  France,  and  secure  to  her  the 
Liberty  that  she  sends  now  as  of  old  to  us ! 

"  One  thought  more  and  I  close  this  acknowledg- 
ment. Your  work  is  honorable  to  yourself  and 
to  your  art,  and  in  connection  with  your  presence 
here,  it  tells  upon  the  future  of  humanity  and  the 
progress  of  civilization.  You  are  here,  artists  and 
workmen,  with  your  wives  and  children,  and  your 


THE    BRYANT   VASE.  I  3 

employers  are  with  you,  and  we  are  all  one  in  the 
generous  spirit  of  the  occasion.  Let  this  be  a 
prophecy  of  the  good  future  of  labor  in  its  rela- 
tions with  skill  and  capital.  Many  perplexing 
questions  are  connected  with  this  subject,  and  I 
cannot  argue  them  now,  nor  can  I  expose  the 
fearful  mistakes  that  have  so  often  wrecked  labor 
in  the  name  of  friendship,  and  betrayed  the  work- 
man with  a  kiss.  The  age  of  true  co-operation 
must  come,  and  this  beautiful  work  is  one  of  the 
signs  of  its  promise.  A  hundred  years  ago,  Adam 
Smith,  who  had  before  written  of  sympathy  as  the 
ground  of  moral  sentiment,  published  his  '  Wealth  of 
Nations,'  that  great  charter  of  the  dignity  of  labor ; 
and  that  same  year,  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  had 
taught  workmen  sobriety  and  thrift,  signed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  that  made  us  a  nation. 
Adam  Smith  and  Benjamin  Franklin  are  in  the  air 
here  to-night,  and  they  help  us  in  our  presentation 
of  this  vase  to  William  Cullen  Bryant,  who  wears 
their  mantle  in  his  purpose  and  his  thought. 

"  Let  the  organ  sound  the  hopes  that  I  cannot 
speak  ;  and  I  leave  to  the  organist,  who  has  the 
Bunker  Hill  blood  and  name  that  went  through  the 
fire  of  battle,  to  touch  the  notes  of  love  and  life, 
that  mean  the  peace  of  nations,  the  fellowship  of 
the  arts,  and  the  brotherhood  of  mankind." 


14  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

DR.   OSGOOD'S   ADDRESS   TO   MR.   BRYANT. 

"  We  and  our  children  have  received  many  and 
precious  gifts  from  you,  Mr.  Bryant  ;  and  now  we 
bring  a  gift  to  you  in  return,  not  to  cancel,  but  to 
express  our  obligation.  This  piece  of  silver  means 
you  and  what  we  owe  to  you ;  and  as  we  now  pre- 
sent it,  we  take  the  liberty  to  interpret  its  signifi- 
cance. 

"  This  occasion  is  the  sequel  and  fulfillment  of 
our  interview  with  you  November  3d,  1874,  when, 
headed  by  Mr.  Jonathan  Sturges,  your  old  and 
devoted  friend,  whose  name  now  brightens  the 
record  of  our  best  citizens,  noblest  patriots,  and 
most  humane  and  godly  men,  we  paid  our  respects 
to  you  upon  the  eightieth  anniversary  of  your 
birthday,  and  announced  to  you  this  tribute  of 
honor.  This  work  of  art  has  thus  a  memorial 
meaning,  and  it  recounts  the  more  than  fourscore 
years  of  your  life,  and  makes  your  age  stand  for 
the  age  in  which  we  live. 

"  Permit  us  then  first  of  all  to  salute  in  you  the 
goodly  spirit  of  the  age  which  you  represent, 
and  to  see  the  nineteenth,  with  six  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  looking  down  upon  us  from 
your  honored  head. 

"  You  came  into  this  troubled  world  at  a  signal 


THE    BRYANT   VASE.  I  5 

period,  when  mighty  forces  were  in  deadly  conflict, 
and  you  have  done  your  work  as  at  once  a  liberator 
and  a  peacemaker,  an  assailant  of  tyranny  and  a 
champion  of  law,  a  leader  of  light  and  liberty,  and 
of  reverence  and  faith.  When  you  were  born, 
Robespierre  and  his  crew  had  just  fallen  under  the 
guillotine,  and  Napoleon  was  a  young  adventurer, 
writing  of  'life  as  a  flimsy  dream  soon  to  be  over,' 
and  suspected  of  sympathizing  with  the  destructives. 
He  lived  to  be  First  Consul,  then  Emperor,  and  to 
boast  of  putting  the  crown  of  empire  upon  the 
head  of  the  Revolution.  He  has  gone,  and  the 
second  and  the  third  Napoleon  after  him.  You 
have  lived  to  assist  in  putting  upon  the  head  of 
Revolution  the  crown  of  order,  and  in  our  second 
or  renewed  republic  you  have  made  your  pen 
mightier  than  the  sword  in  defense  of  the  op- 
pressed, in  the  restraint  of  the  proud,  in  break- 
ing the  shackles  of  the  slave,  and  bringing  master 
and  servant,  rich  and  poor,  under  the  rule  of  equal 
law.  This  medallion  of  the  old-fashioned  printing 
press,  in  connection  with  this  design  illustrating 
your  career  as  a  journalist,  marks  well  this  part  of 
your  life,  and  we  salute  you  as  representative  of  the 
Press,  the  Free  Press,  now  the  great  power  on 
earth,  and  the  greater  always  as  freedom  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  justice  and  truth. 


1 6  .  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

"  We  salute  in  you  this  good  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  we  honor  your  part  in  its  literature  as  well  as 
its  law.  When  you  came  into  the  world  the  storm- 
spirits  were  abroad  in  letters,  and  were  rising  in 
number  and  power,  in  spite  of  the  reaction  against 
the  reign  of  terror.  Byron  was  a  child  of  six 
years,  and  Shelley  an  infant  of  two,  and  Coleridge 
and  Wordsworth,  young  men  of  twenty-four,  were 
still  in  the  unrest  and  frenzy  of  radicalism,  and  had 
neither  found  each  other  nor  the  faith  and  love 
that  so  exalted  them  and  the  new  literature  which 
they  founded.  The  masters  of  German  literature, 
Goethe  and  Schiller,  were  friends  and  fellow- 
workers,  but  little  known  to  the  great  world,  and 
with  hardly  a  public  to  appreciate  them  in  the 
Germany  that  had  been  so  much  under  the  thought, 
as  well  as  the  power,  of  Frederick  the  Great.  Your 
life  belongs  to  the  great  record,  and  you  rank  with 
the  spirits  of  light  and  reconciliation  that  led  on 
the  Renaissance  from  the  night  of  bigotry  and 
skepticism.  You  belong  to  the  goodly  company 
who  with  Wordsworth  and  his  fellows  opened  to 
men  the  life  of  nature  and  the  truth  of  God.  It  is 
a  simple  fact  for  me  to  say  that  you  began  our 
new  American  literature,  and  that,  although  not 
eldest  in  years,  you  are  eldest  in  authorship  among 
the  poets  of  America. 


THE    BRYANT   VASE.  I  7 

"  This  sculptured  harp,  with  its  neighbor  the 
book  decked  with  the  lily,  tells  well  the  story  of  the 
spirit  of  your  school  of  poetry  and  letters ;  and  in 
you  we  welcome  your  goodly  fellowship  of  our 
American  poets.  How  great  the  contrast  between 
your  rendering  of  nature  and  life  and  that  of  the 
school  of  liberalism  that  went  before !  Who  can 
withhold  admiration  from  Rousseau,  the  champion 
of  nature  against  artifice,  or  refuse  to  acknowledge 
the  great  work  of  liberation  that  he  did  ?  Yet  how 
full  of  grossness  were  his  pages  and  his  life.  What 
relief  there  is  in  our  liberty  to  love  nature  with 
you,  and  to  read  no  line,  which,  dying,  you  might 
wish  to  blot. 

"  We  salute  you  thus  as  the  representative  of 
our  home  literature  as  well  as  of  the  culture  of 
the  age.  Great  names  had  gone  before,  and 
the  Revolution  produced  masters  of  prose  speech 
under  the  lead  of  Franklin,  their  chief,  and  Jeffer- 
son, Madison,  Jay,  Hamilton,  and  their  associates 
in  his  company.  As  we  pay  our  respects  to  you, 
the  poets  and  authors  whom  you  have  known  and 
honored  stand  with  you,  and  they  that  have  passed 
away  speak  to  us  again.  Irving,  Cooper,  Halleck, 
Verplanck,  Prescott,  and  all  are  here,  and  the  living 
join  in  honor  to  the  dead.  Dana,  now  on  the 
threshold  of  fourscore  and  ten  years,  Longfellow, 


1 8  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

Whittier,  and  Emerson,  rich  in  genius  as  ripe  in 
years,  with  the  brilliant  fellowship  of  younger 
poets,  come  before  us  now  and  win  our  gratitude 
for  their  treasures  of  beauty  and  wisdom.  How 
pure  our  poets  have  been  in  life,  and  how  pure  the 
speech  which  they  have  set  to  music  for  the 
tongue  of  the  nation  !  You,  sir,  have  done  more 
than  we  can  say  to  form  our  language,  and  we, 
who  have  caught  pure  diction  as  well  as  stirring 
thought  and  winning  sentiment  from  your  poems 
in  our  school  days,  are  glad  indeed  to  set  our 
thanks  before  you  in  this  expressive  gift,  with  its 
lessons  from  the  nature  that  you  have  interpreted, 
the  country  that  you  have  served,  and  the  litera- 
ture that  you  have  formed. 

"  One  thing  let  us  say,  which  this  vase  signifies 
by  its  Greek  severity  and  by  its  Gothic  lines  of 
interlacing  branches  and  upward  pointing.  This 
means  the  union  of  the  Greek  culture  with  the 
Hebrew  faith,  the  culture  that  delights  in  nature 
and  humanity,  and  the  faith  that  never  forgets  the 
God  over  all,  never  loses  the  Great  First  Cause  in 
pantheist  visions  or  humanitarian  pride.  There 
may  be  more  delirium  and  inebriation  in  other 
schools  of  poetry,  whether  in  sensual  madness  or 
mystical  absorption,  but  we  part  with  our  birthright 
when  we   desert  the  God  of  our  fathers  and  set 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  1 9 

nature  or  man  on  His  throne.  We  congratulate 
you  that,  in  the  whole  round  of  your  service  as 
poet,  journalist,  historian,  jurist,  teacher  of  political 
and  social  science,  you  have  stood  by  essential 
ethics,  and  never  deserted  the  faith. 

"  It  only  remains  for  me  to  say  that  this  gift  ex- 
presses, also,  our  respect  and  affection  for  you  as 
our  friend  and  fellow-citizen.  Many  offerings, 
great  and  small,  are  in  this  piece  of  silver,  and 
they  come  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  not  with- 
out complaint  that  more  was  not  called  for.  We 
who  live  in  and  around  New  York  have  not  been 
behindhand  in  this  tribute,  and  we  enter  into  this 
presentation  with  peculiar  earnestness.  You  are 
our  neighbor  and  companion,  and  for  more  than 
fifty  years  you  have  taken  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  this  city,  and  helped  us  in  every  way.  We  can 
all  join  in  this  deference,  whether  native  or  foreign 
born,  Knickerbockers  or  New-Englanders,  East- 
ern, Western,  Northern,  or  Southern,  for  we  all 
know  you  and  respect  you.  You  have  helped  turn 
out  the  knaves  and  put  honest  men  into  power. 
You  stood  by  the  old  flag  in  the  great  struggle 
when  '  God  and  Our  Country '  was  the  motto,  and 
you  are  standing  by  it  now  when  '  Honest  Men 
and  Honest  Money  ;  is  the  issue  of  the  time.  You 
have  not  shrunk  from  the  duty  that  now  so  presses 


20  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

upon  us — the  duty  of  charity  and  justice  to  those 
who  have  been  our  enemies  ;  and  you  counsel 
conciliation  without  cowardice,  whilst  you  give  the 
same  rights  that  you  ask — the  right  of  each  State 
to  control  its  own  affairs  under  the  Constitution 
that  makes  the  nation  supreme  in  its  own  sphere. 
Here,  too,  these  sculptures  speak  the  lesson  of  the 
hour,  and  speak  of  you.  The  cotton  and  the 
corn  here  come  together,  and  the  bird  of  peace  is 
singing  between  the  two.  May  the  promise  be 
fulfilled,  and  North  and  South  not  only  hear  but 
repeat  the  same  song  of  loyalty,  the  same  hymn 
of  faith  and  good-will ! 

"  You  have  not  lost  ground  by  living  with  us, 
and  you  have  risen  from  a  young  man  of  thirty  to 
a  full-grown  man,  I  will  not  say  an  old  man,  of  over 
eighty,  as  hearty  and  active  as  ever.  You  have 
seen  the  city  double  its  numbers  and  wealth  many 
times,  not  without  some  signs  of  growth  in  wisdom 
as  well  as  bulk.  We  have  been  in  some  respects 
a  little  more  fast  than  your  advice  and  example 
taught  us  to  be,  but  in  being  generally  cheerful 
we  have  followed  your  lead,  and  kept  up  a  brave 
heart  through  all  changes  of  fortune.  We  are  glad 
to  have  you  with  us  to  cheer  us  on  to  the  great 
future  as  we  turn  the  leaf  of  a  new  century.  You 
still  live  the  life  which  this  vase  embodies.      You 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  21 

still  see  and  enjoy  the  charm  of  nature ;  the  gen- 
tian, the  violet,  the  primrose,  and  the  apple-blos- 
som delight  you  as  ever  ;  you  hear  the  hymn  of 
the  forest  and  the  song  of  the  stars ;  the  merry 
Robert  of  Lincoln  sings  for  you  his  genial  glee, 
and  the  solemn  water-fowl  preaches  faith  with 
untiring  wingf.  Your  muse,  that  be^an  with 
'  Thanatopsis,'  promises  to  make  '  Athanasia ' 
her  swan  song  as  the  lengthening  shadows  point 
toward  morning. 

"  Accept  this  gift,  with  all  its  sculptures  and 
memorials,  the  study  of  many  thoughtful  hours  and 
the  trophy  of  more  than  a  thousand  days'  work,  all 
throbbing  with  heart-beats,  as  at  once  our  record 
and  our  blessing.  This  exquisite  form  brings 
beauty  from  the  land  of  old  Homer  to  join  with 
truth  and  grace  from  our  new  America  in  celebrat- 
ing your  birthday.  It  means  more  than  we  can 
say.  But  we  can  say,  for  our  country  and  for 
ourselves,  that  it  means,  '  God  bless  you,  Mr. 
Bryant.' " 

MR.  BRYANT'S   ADDRESS. 

"  I  shall  begin  what  I  have  to  say  with  thanks, 
and  with  thanks  I  shall  end  it — thanks  to  my  ex- 
cellent friends  who  have  concurred  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  this  beautiful  vase,  thanks  to  the  artists  by 


2  2  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

whom  it  is  designed  and  executed,  thanks  to  my 
friend  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  for  the  obli^- 
ing  expressions  with  which  he  has  accompanied  the 
presentation,  and  thanks  to  this  fair  audience  for 
the  encouragement  of  their  presence.  After  ex- 
pressing my  acknowledgments  for  the  honor  done 
me,  it  would  be  easiest  for  me  to  take  refuse  in 
silence ;  but  this  would  hardly  become  me  after  the 
kind  words  addressed  to  me  and  the  superb  gift 
offered  to  my  acceptance.  I  fear  that  I  might  be 
accused  of  imitating  an  example  of  which  I  remem- 
ber to  have  read  some  forty  years  since.  A  vol- 
unteer military  company  in  a  provincial  town  of 
England  on  a  time  presented  their  captain  with  a 
silver  pitcher.  The  non-commissioned  officer  who 
presented  it,  approaching  his  commander,  held  it  out 
to  him  and  said,  '  Captain,  here's  the  jug.'  To  this 
the  captain  replied,  '  Ay,  is  that  the  jug  ? '  and 
there  the  speech-making  ended,  and  the  company 
were  ready  for  the  festivities  of  the  evening.  I  am 
afraid  that  a  similar  condensation  of  what  I  have 
to  say  might  be  as  ridiculous. 

"  Mr.  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  and  you,  my 
good  friends  who  have  done  me  the  honor  to  be 
here,  I  would  not  have  you  understand  that  I  have 
the  great  presumption  to  take  the  obliging  things 
said  of  me  as  my  due,  or  this  superb  gift  before  me 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  23 

as  earned  by  any  service  which  I  have  rendered  in 
any  quarter.  I  wish  I  deserved  it  all,  but,  knowing 
better  in  my  heart,  I  put  a  large  balance — a  very 
large  one. — to  the  credit  of  your  generosity.  What 
merit  would  be  yours  if  I  had  fairly  earned  all 
that  you  are  bestowing  upon  me  ?  You  would  be 
simply  doing  your  duty  ;  you  would  be  paying  a 
debt.  I  should  have  no  thanks  to  give,  and  you 
no  honor  for  your  benefaction.  But  consider  it 
in  the  other  light :  suppose  that  I  receive  these 
testimonials  of  your  kindness  without  having 
earned  them,  and  this  proceeding  becomes  an  act 
of  munificence,  noble,  princely,  imperial — a  muni- 
ficence deserving  to  be  extolled  in  the  choicest 
phrases  which  language  can  supply,  inasmuch  as  it 
is  like  the  bounty  which  showers  the  genial  rain 
and  pours  the  sweet  sunshine  on  the  unjust  as  well 
as  the  just,  and  under  the  influence  of  benignant 
seasons  ripens  the  harvests  of  the  field  for  Tweed 
as  well  as  for  Dr.  Muhlenberg. 

"  And  now  a  word  concerning  the  superb  vase 
which  is  before  me,  the  work  of  artists  who  are  the 
worthy  successors  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  and  emi- 
nent in  their  department.  It  has  been  greatly 
admired  by  those  who  have  seen  it,  and  deserves 
their  admiration.  I  remember  to  have  read,  I 
think  some  half  a  century  ago,  a  definition  of  the 


24  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

term  genius — making  it  to  consist  in  the  faculty  of 
accomplishing  great  results  by  small  means — the 
power,  in  short,  which  an  individual  has  of  over- 
coming difficulties  by  a  forecast  and  vigor  not  pos- 
sessed by  others,  converting  obstacles  into  instru- 
ments of  success.  This  vase  I  may  call  a  product 
of  genius,  both  in  the  design  and  the  execution  ; 
for  who  would  suppose  that  any  skill  of  the  artist 
could  connect  with  such  a  subject  as  he  had  before 
him  images  so  happily  conceived,  so  full  of  ex- 
pression, and  so  well  combining  expression  with 
grace  ?  My  friends,  we  authors  cultivate  a  short- 
lived reputation  ;  one  generation  of  us  pushes 
another  from  the  stage  ;  the  very  language  in 
which  we  write  becomes  a  jargon,  and  we  cease  to 
be  read  ;  but  a  work  like  this  is  always  beautiful, 
always  admired.  Age  has  no  power  over  its 
charm.  Hereafter  some  one  may  say,  'This  beau- 
tiful vase  was  made  in  honor  of  a  certain  American 
poet,  whose  name  it  bears,  but  whose  writings  are 
forgotten.  It  is  remarkable  that  so  much  pains 
should  have  been  taken  to  illustrate  the  life  and 
writings  of  one  whose  works  are  so  completely 
unknown  at  the  present  day.'  Thus,  gentlemen 
artists,  I  shall  be  indebted  to  you  for  causing  the 
memory  of  my  name  to  outlast  that  of  my 
writings." 


APPENDIX. 


THE  PRESENTATION. 
DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  VASE. 
THE  BIRTHDAY  VISIT. 
TRIBUTES  OF  THE  PRESS. 


APPENDIX, 


There  having1  been  a  general  desire  that  the 
proceedings  connected  with  the  recent  tribute  of 
honor  to  Mr.  Bryant  should  be  preserved  in  per- 
manent and  suitable  form,  they  have  been  collected 
together  with  the  approval  of  the  parties  concerned, 
and  they  are  now  published  with  the  authority  of 
the  Executive  Committee  who  had  charge  of  the 
preparation  and  presentation  of  the  Testimonial. 
This  publication  is  purely  a  historical  record,  and 
its  aim  is  not  to  express  opinions,  but  simply  to 
chronicle  facts.  The  record  speaks  for  itself,  and 
it  is  not  necessary  to  prove  that  the  occasion  is 
not  only  a  tribute  to  one  man,  but  to  the  whole 
national  literature  which  he  represents,  and  that 
thus  these  proceedings  form  an  interesting  chapter 
of  American  history. 

In  completing  their  task,  the  Committee  have 
the  satisfaction  of  reporting  to  the  subscribers  that 
after  paying  five  thousand  dollars  for  the  Vase, 
according  to  contract,  and  meeting  all  demands  for 
incidental  expenses,  they  found   in  the  treasurer's 


28  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

hands  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
dollars  and  fifty  cents,  which  they  were  happy  to 
send  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  as  a  donation 
toward  the  comprehensive  and  unsectarian  chari- 
ties of  St.  Luke's  Hospital.  They  take  pleasure 
also  in  the  enterprise  and  public  spirit  of  Messrs. 
Tiffany  &  Company,  who  expended  on  the  Vase 
more  than  double  the  amount  of  money  received 
by  them  according  to  contract,  and  who  are  content, 
as  they  have  reason  to  be,  with  their  reward  in 
their  own  professional  feeling,  and  before  the 
tribunal  of  public  opinion.  Their  work  will  speak 
for  them  and  their  art  in  the  years  that  are  to 
come.  The  Committee  have  transmitted  to  Mr. 
Bryant  the  full  title  to  the  Vase,  with  the  simple 
request  that  when  he  ceases  to  have  it  in  charge, 
his  heirs  may  be  instructed  by  him  to  have  it  kept 
in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  or  a  similar 
institution,  where  posterity  may  learn  in  what 
esteem  he  was  held  in  his  own  generation. 

The  documents  which  are  here  added  are  from 
the  journals  of  the  day,  and  are  published  in  order 
to  complete  the  account. 

Samuel  Osgood, 
Joseph  H.  Choate, 
George  Cabot  Ward. 


THE    BRYANT   VASE.  29 


ITS  PRESENTATION— ADDRESSES  BY  DR.  OSGOOD, 
MR.  WHITEHOUSE,  MR.  BRYANT,  AND  OTHERS. 

The  Testimonial  Vase  which  was  tendered  to 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  on  his  eightieth  birthday, 
by  a  large  Committee  of  prominent  persons  in  this 
and  other  cities,  was  formally  presented  to  him  at 
Chickering  Hall  last  evening.  The  hall  was  filled 
by  a  remarkably  brilliant  company  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  including  many  of  distinction  in  various 
walks  of  life.  Among  the  persons  present  were 
Charles  O'Conor,  Peter  Cooper,  A.  A.  Low,  Parke 
Godwin,  Daniel  Huntington,  John  Taylor  John- 
ston, William  H.  Appleton,  Joseph  H.  Choate, 
Frederick  Sturges,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  George 
Cabot  Ward,  Henry  W.  Bellows,  Howard  Crosby, 
J.  G.  Holland,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  F.  A.  P.  Bar- 
nard, William  J.  Hoppin,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  C. 
Potter,  Henry  E.  Pierrepont,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Men- 
des,  Jackson  S.  Schultz,  Bayard  Taylor,  Comp- 
troller Green,  and  many  others  equally  well  known 
to  the  public.  Letters  of  regret  were  received 
from  Bishop  Potter,  General  Sherman,  Dr.  John 
Hall,  Carl  Schurz,  the  Rev.  Robert  Collyer,  and 
others. 

"  Hail  to  the  Chief"  was  played  upon  the  organ 
by  George  William  Warren,  as  Mr.  Bryant  was 
conducted  to  the  platform  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
Osgood,  and  the  whole  audience  rose.  Dr.  Os- 
good,  as   Chairman   of  the  Testimonial  Commit- 


30  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

tee,  then  made  a  few  remarks  in  regard  to  the 
object  of  the  assembly. 

James  H.  Whitehouse,  of  Tiffany  &  Co.,  next 
presented  the  Vase  to  the  Committee  on  behalf  of 
the  makers.  He  said  that  he  was  proud  to  hand 
over  so  fine  a  piece  of  workmanship  for  so  noble 
a  purpose.  He  created  considerable  merriment 
by  reminding  his  hearers  that  the  men  who  really 
did  all  the  labor  on  a  work  of  art  like  the  Vase, 
seldom  or  never  got  any  credit  for  their  pains,  or 
were  seldom  even  heard  of;  and  in  order  to  make 
an  exception  to  a  general  rule,  he  said  that  the 
men  who  had  done  the  entire  work  on  the  Vase 
were  present,  and  he  felt  certain  they  would  not 
be  overlooked  in  the  general  praisegivings.  At 
the  request  of  Dr.  Osgood,  the  five  workmen  who 
were  on  the  stage  stood  up,  and  were  received 
with  hearty  applause.  The  address  of  Mr.  White- 
house  was  very  appropriate  and  graceful. 

Dr.  Osgood  spoke  as  already  reported  on 
receiving  the  Vase. 

After  the  rendering  of  some  national  airs  on 
the  organ,  Dr.  Osgood  presented  the  Vase  to  Mr. 
Bryant  in  the  speech  as  printed. 

Applause  followed,  and  "  See  the  Conquering 
Hero  Comes "  was  played  upon  the  organ.  Mr. 
Bryant  then  advanced  to  respond,  and  was  received 
with  long-continued  applause. 

Mr.  Bryant's  address  was  received  with  loud 
applause.  The  exercises  on  the  programme  were 
then  ended  by  some   organ  selections,  but  there 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  3 1 

were  loud  calls  from  the  audience  for  Joseph  H. 
Choate,  who  was  upon  the  platform.  Mr.  Choate 
at  length  said  that  he  did  not  wish  to  detain  the 
company  by  any  words  of  his,  but  he  could  say 
that  the  thousand  people  gathered  there  repre- 
sented not  only  all  the  people  of  this  country,  but 
all  who  spoke  and  wrote  the  English  tongue,  in 
their  feelings  toward  the  venerable  and  distin- 
guished poet.  The  American  people  were  proud 
of  their  productions.  They  were  proud  of  their 
great  statesmen  and  great  warriors,  but  most  of  all 
of  their  great  poets.  •  The  works  of  American 
authors,  of  Bryant,  of  Longfellow,  of  Whittier,  and 
Holmes,  were  to  be  found  in  every  drawing-room 
in  the  British  empire,  and  no  one  could  now  ask, 
"  Who  reads  an  American  book  ?  "  He  advised 
the  persons  present  to  take  this  opportunity  for 
"  shaking  hands  with  our  honored  friend,  and 
examining  this  beautiful  Vase." 

A  large  part  of  the  audience  then  advanced  to 
the  platform  to  congratulate  Mr.  Bryant  and  to 
inspect  the  silver  Vase,  a  full  description  of  which 
has  been  published. 

It  was  announced  by  Dr.  Osgood  that,  with  Mr. 
Bryant's  permission,  the  Vase  would  be  taken  to 
the  Centennial  Exhibition. —  The  Evening  Post, 
June  21,  1876. 


32  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

DESCRIPTION    OF    THE    VASE. 

(From  Harper's  Magazine  for  July,  1876.) 

*  *  It  was  thought  by  the  friends  of 
William  Cullen  Bryant  in  this  city  that  some  trib- 
ute of  respect  was  due  to  him  when  he  reached 
eighty  years  of  age,  and  the  suggestion  was  made 
by  one  among  them  that  a  commemorative  Vase, 
of  appropriate'  original  design  and  choice  work- 
manship, would  be  the  best  form  of  the  intended 
tribute,  especially  since  Mr.  Bryant  did  not  need 
any  material  aid,  and,  moreover,  the  sculptor  and 
painter  and  engraver  and  publisher  had  already 
conspicuously  paid  their  respects  to  him.  Our 
leading  artists  and  men  of  taste  were  consulted, 
and  the  plan  of  a  commemorative  Vase  was  ap- 
proved and  acted  upon.      *      *      * 

As  the  Vase  required  much  time  for  its  comple- 
tion, no  effort  was  made  to  have  it  ready  for  pres- 
entation then,  but  immediately  afterward  effective 
measures  were  taken  to  carry  out  the  assurance 
contained  in  the  address  by  completing  the  sub- 
scription of  five  thousand  dollars,  and  securing  the 
best  design.  The  field  of  competition  was  thrown 
open  to  the  whole  craft  of  silversmiths,  and  while 
the  first  attempts  showed  crudeness  and  inexperi- 
ence, and  not  a  few  persons   declared   it   to   be 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  33 

impossible  for  our  designers  and  workmen  to  make 
a  first-class  work  of  ideal  and  historical  art  such  as 
would  be  fit  for  presentation  to  the  patriarch  of 
American  letters,  the  final  result  removed  all 
these  misgivings,  and  the  fine  designs  that  were 
offered  at  the  closing  competition  in  February, 
1875,  put  all  fears  at  rest,  and  proved  that  our 
silversmiths  were  up  to  the  best  standard  of  their 
guild,  and  that,  with  full  preparation  and  fair  notice, 
they  can  do  as  good  work  in  their  way  as  is  done 
anywhere  in  the  world.  All  the  designs  were 
creditable  to  their  authors,  and  the  specimens  of 
modeling  in  wax  and  of  casting  and  chasing  in 
metal-work  were  interesting  and  encoura^inor. 
The  design  of  Mr.  Whitehouse,  of  the  house  of 
Tiffany  &  Co.,  was  accepted  unanimously,  alike 
from  its  beauty  and  its  fitness,  while  the  other 
designs  were  carefully  examined,  generously  ap- 
preciated, and  the  public  were  encouraged  to  study 
their  merits  by  friendly  comments  from  the  Com- 
mittee, and  by  articles  in  the  newspapers  and  illus- 
trations in  the  magazines.  Our  readers  have  now 
an  opportunity  to  judge  for  themselves  of  the 
merits  of  the  successful  design,  and  the  visitors  at 
the  Centennial  Exposition  are  seeing  the  work 
itself  with  their  own  eyes. 

It  is  not  a  very  ambitious  production,  and  in  its 
3 


34  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

severity  of  form  and  in  its  careful  and  exquisite 
details  there  is  a  combination  of  simplicity  and 
beauty  which  belongs  to  the  subject,  and  which 
ventures  upon  no  point  which  cannot  be  thorough- 
ly worked  out.  This  piece  of  silver  means  William 
Cullen  Bryant,  the  living  father  of  our  literature, 
and  it  siiQfQfests  the  America  in  which  he  has  lived 
and  labored  and  sung.  The  artist,  Mr.  James  H. 
YVhitehouse,  well  expressed  the  spirit  of  his  work 
in  his  remarks  before  the  Committee,  when  he 
said  :  "  When  the  Bryant  Testimonial  was  first 
mentioned  to  me,  my  thoughts  at  once  flew  to  the 
country — to  the  crossing  of  the  boughs  of  trees,  to 
the  plants  and  flowers,  and  to  a  general  contem- 
plation of  Nature  ;  and  these,  together  with  a  cer- 
tain Homeric  influence,  produced  in  my  mind  the 
germ  of  the  design — the  form  of  a  Greek  vase, 
with  the  most  beautiful  American  flowers  crowing 
round  and  entwining  themselves  gracefully  about 
it,  each  breathing  its  own  particular  story  as  it 
grew." 

Thus  it  is  that  the  Vase  is  entirely  covered  with 
a  fret-work  formed  of  apple-branches  and  their 
blossoms,  or  a  delicate  basket-work  from  the  apple- 
tree,  which  so  well  expresses  Mr.  Bryant's  poetry 
in  its  fragant  bloom  and  its  wholesome  fruit.  Be- 
neath this  fret-work,  and  forming  the  finer  lines  of 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  35 

its  fret,  are  the  primrose  and  the  amaranth,  which 
out  of  the  lips  of  their  loveliness  speak  their  lessons 
of  inspiration  and  of  immortality.  The  body  of  the 
Vase,  which  is  thus  formed  and  enriched,  bears  ex- 
pressive and  elaborate  medallions  of  the  poet,  and 
of  the  main  aspects  of  his  life  and  works.  The  most 
prominent  of  these  medallions  is  the  portrait  bust. 
Above  his  head  is  the  lyre,  which  represents  his 
art,  and  below  is  the  printing-press  in  its  primitive 
form,  which  suggests  his  career  of  journalism,  while 
more  prominent  still,  farther  below,  is  the  elaborate 
and  beautiful  design  of  the  water-fowl,  which  so 
presents  God  over  Nature  in  the  charming  and  ex- 
alting poem  of  that  name.  On  the  opposite  side  of 
the  Vase  there  is  a  carefully  designed  and  executed 
study  of  Poetry  contemplating  Nature — two  female 
figures,  which  balance  wisely  the  somewhat  se- 
verely masculine  character  of  the  other  designs, 
and  give  their  womanly  grace  to  the  honor  of  the 
poet  whose  life  and  works  so  well  harmonize  in 
respect  for  woman,  and  for  the  home,  marriage, 
and  religion  that  give  her  the  best  defense  and 
power.  Between  these  two  principal  medallions 
there  are  on  each  side  two  groups  illustrating 
scenes  in  the  poets  life,  making  four  groups  in  all. 
The  first  group  presents  him  in  company  with  his 


36  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

father,  who  points  to  Homer  as  a  model  in  poetic 
composition  : 

"For  he  is  in  his  grave  who  taught  my  youth 
The  art  of  verse,  and  in  the  bud  of  life 
Offered  me  to  the  Muses. " 

The  next  group  presents  him  as  the  student  of 
Nature,  such  as  he  appears  in  "  Thanatopsis  "  or 
"  A  Forest  Hymn  "  : 

"Stranger,  if  thou  hast  learned  a  truth  which  needs 
No  school  of  long  experience,  that  the  world 
Is  full  of  guilt  and  misery,  and  hast  seen 
Enough  of  all  its  sorrows,  crimes,  and  cares 
To  tire  thee  of  it,  enter  this  wild  wood 
And  view  the  haunts  of  Nature. " 

The  third  design  illustrates  his  life  as  journalist ; 
and  the  fourth  represents  him  in  his  good  old  age 
as  translator  of  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey.  The 
lower  part  of  the  bowl  bears  ornamentation  from 
the  characteristic  products  of  American  agricul- 
ture— cotton  and  Indian  corn.  The  neck  is  encir- 
cled with  primrose  and  ivy  in  token  of  youth  and 
old  age,  while  the  "  fringed  gentian"  suggests  the 
grave  thought  from  its  blue  petals : 

"  I  would  that  thus,  when  I  shall  see 
The  hour  of  death  draw  near  to  me, 
Hope,  blossoming  within  my  heart, 
May  look  to  heaven  as  I  depart." 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  3/ 

The  famous  line,  "Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall 
rise  again,"  is  also  given  here  in  the  form  of  an 
ornamental  border  inlaid  in  gold.  The  ornament 
at  the  foot  of  the  bowl  is  the  water-lily,  the  emblem 
of  fluency  and  eloquence.  The  handles  are  richly 
decorated  with  the  fern,  the  cotton,  and  Indian 
corn,  while  the  bobolink  represents  the  whole  tribe 
of  his  fellow-singers,  and  does  honor  to  the  poet 
and  to  his  humorous  verse  on  "Robert  of  Lincoln" 
from  his  perch.  The  base  bears  the  lyre  and 
broken  shackles,  which  so  represent  the  poet  as 
patriot  and  emancipator.  The  idea  of  justice  as 
the  animating  motive  of  his  public  career  is  given 
in  the  vigorous  handling"  of  the  Rudbeckia  flower, 

o  o 

which  is  the  type  of  that  virtue  ;  and  this  idea  gains 
power  from  the  book  without  a  name,  and  which 
from  its  prominent  place  can  be  none  other  than 
the  Book  of  books. 

Such  are  the  form  and  features  of  this  memorial 
Vase,  and,  as  in  a  graceful  and  spirited  man,  they 
make  one  whole,  and  the  various  parts  indicate  the 
dominating  spirit,  the  robe  of  flower- work,  with 
its  cincture  of  medallions,  the  golden  fillet  emblaz- 
oned with  the  name  of  Truth,  the  arms  that  hold 
the  emblems  of  the  nation's  wealth,  the  corn  and 
water-lilies  at  the  foot,  the  solid  base  with  the  lyre 
and  broken  chain,  the  bird,  the  two  typical  flow- 


38  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

ers,  the  printing-press  and  the  Bible — all  these 
details  gather  around  the  life  which  they  express, 
and  make  this  piece  of  silver  a  work  of  ideal  and 
historical  art.  As  a  whole,  the  work  has  a  look  of 
simplicity,  and  seems  easy  of  execution,  yet  the 
process  was  very  laborious  and  costly ;  and  a  care- 
ful examination  of  its  various  stages  and  methods, 
with  the  help  of  the  best  judges  and  books,  justifies 
the  opinion  that  industrial  art  in  America  has  taken 
some  steps  forward  by  this  tribute,  and  that  suc- 
cess in  this  instance  is  likely  to  tell  upon  the  whole 
future  of  the  silversmith's  craft  anions  us.  *     *     * 

1794— 1874. 
MR.  BRYANT'S  BIRTHDAY. 

A    SIMPLE    AND    NATIONAL    COMMEMORATION. 

The  eightieth  anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  Mr. 
Bryant  was  the  occasion  yesterday  of  a  greeting  of 
his  friends,  which  partook  so  much  of  a  public 
character  that  a  simple  narrative  of  some  of  the 
particulars  is  due  to  our  readers. 

An  informal  meeting  of  a  number  of  gentlemen 
was  held  in  this  city  a  few  weeks  ago,  to  consider 
how  the  eeneral  desire  to  commemorate  the  anni- 
versary  might  find  a  suitable  expression.     At  this 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  39 

meeting  the  suo-^estion  was  made  that  a  silver  vase 
of  original  design  and  choice  workmanship,  sym- 
bolizing in  its  sculpture  the  character  of  Mr. 
Bryant's  life  and  writings,  should  be  procured  by  a 
popular  subscription,  to  be  ultimately  placed  in  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  By  the  request  of 
numerous  friends  of  Mr.  Bryant,  residing  both  here 
and  elsewhere,  the  suggestion  was  also  adopted 
that  an  address  should  be  drawn  for  their  signature, 
to  express  to  him  their  friendship. 

In  pursuance  of  the  first  suggestion,  a  Committee, 
of  whom  the  following  is  a  list,  were  organized  to 
execute  the  project  of  the  commemorative  Vase  : 
Jonathan  Sturges,  of  New  York  city,  Chairman  ; 
Samuel  Osgood,  Daniel  Huntington,  John  Taylor 
Johnston,  William  H.  Appleton,  Asher  B.  Durand, 
William  T.  Blodgett,  William  M.  Evarts,  George 
Ripley,  Frederick  A.  P.  Barnard,  William  Butler 
Duncan,  Benjamin  H.  Field,  Henry  W.  Bellows, 
Howard  Crosby,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Frederick 
De  Peyster,  Henry  C.  Potter,  William  Adams,  and 
Franklin  H.  Delano,  of  New  York  city;  Henry  E. 
Pierrepont  and  A.  A.  Low,  of  Brooklyn  ;  John 
Bigelow,  of  Highland  Falls,  N.  Y.;  Bayard  Taylor, 
of  Pennsylvania ;  Edward  Everett  Hale,  of  Boston  ; 
Edwin  Harwood,  of  New  Haven  ;  James  L.  Gag- 
horn,  of  Philadelphia  ;  James  H.  Latrobe,  of  Balti- 


4-0  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

more  ;  Edwin  C.  Larned,  of  Chicago  ;  William  G. 
Eliot,  of  St.  Louis  ;  Henry  Probasco,  of  Cincinnati ; 
Ogden  Hoffman,  of  San  Francisco;  Alfred  Haven, 
of  Portsmouth,  N.  H.;  and  George  F.  Hoar,  of 
Worcester,  Mass.;  George  Cabot  Ward,  of  New 
York  city,  Treasurer ;  Wentworth  S.  Butler,  of 
New  York  city,  Secretary. 

In  accordance  with  the  second  sucf^estion,  the 
following  address  was  prepared  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Samuel  Osgood,  for  the  signature  of  Mr.  Bryant's 
friends  : 

"  November  3,  1874. 
"  William  Citllen  Bryant  : 

"  Honored  and  Dear  Sir  :  We,  your  friends 
and  fellow-citizens,  congratulate  you  upon  complet- 
ing your  eightieth  year  in  such  vigor  of  body  and 
mind.  We  give  you  our  heartiest  wishes  for  your 
continued  health  and  happiness,  and  we  inform  you 
respectfully  of  the  intention  to  embody  in  a  com- 
memorative Vase,  of  original  design  and  choice 
workmanship,  the  lessons  of  your  literary  and 
civic  career  in  its  relations  with  our  country,  whose 
nature,  history,  liberty,  law,  and  conscience  you 
have  so  illustrated.  We  believe  that  such  a  work 
will  be  an  expressive  fact  of  our  coming  National 
Centennial,  and  a  permanent  treasure  of  our  Met- 
ropolitan Museum  of  Art.     We  only  add  that  we 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  4 1 

desire  that  this  tribute  of  gratitude  should  come 
from  your  friends  throughout  the  country,  without 
distinction  of  party  or  section,  and  that  our  Ameri- 
can women  shall  be  encouraged  to  unite  in  the  act, 
since  our  mothers,  wives,  and  daughters  are  ready 
to  declare  their  obligation  to  you  for  the  pure  lan- 
guage and  sentiment  which  you  have  given  to  the 
homes  and  the  schools  of  the  nation." 

Mr.  Bryant  was  yesterday  at  work  at  his  edito- 
rial desk  in  the  Evening  Post  building  until  noon. 
Between  i  and  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Stur- 
ges,  with  many  of  his  associates  in  the  Committee, 
and  other  friends,  presented  to  him,  at  his  house  in 
Sixteenth  Street  in  this  city,  a  copy  of  the  address, 
bearing  several  hundreds  of  signatures  of  names 
illustrious  in  almost  every  honorable  pursuit  in  this 
community,  and  at  the  same  time  other  copies 
which  had  up  to  yesterday  morning  been  returned 
to  the  Committee  with  signatures  from  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  Philadelphia,  and  other  centers  of  American 
population,  culture,  and  enterprise.  The  proceed- 
ings were  all  simple  and  informal.  Mr.  Bryant  was 
accompanied  by  his  daughters — Mrs.  Parke  God- 
win and  Miss  Julia  Bryant — and  among  the  gentle- 
men in  company  with  Mr.  Sturges  were  the  Rev- 
Drs.  William  Adams,  Henry  W.  Bellows,  Howard 
Crosby,  and  Samuel  Osgood  ;  Mr.  Daniel  Hunting- 


42  THE    BRYANT    YASE. 

ton,  Mr.  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  Mr.  A.  A.  Low,  Mr. 
Benjamin  H.  Field,  Mr.  Frederick  De  Peyster,  Mr. 
George  Cabot  Ward,  Mr.  John  H.  Gourlie,  Mr. 
Albert  G.  Browne,  Jr.,  Professor  Van  Amringe,  of 
Columbia  College,  Mr.  Wentworth  S.  Butler,  and 
Mr.  Gilbert  L.  Beeckman.  In  delivering  to  Mr. 
Bryant  the  copy  of  the  address,  Mr.  Sturges  said  : 
"  We  have  come,  dear  Mr.  Bryant,  to  congratu- 
late you  upon  reaching  the  ripe  age  of  eighty  year's 
in  such  vigor  of  health  and  intellect ;  to  thank  you 
for  all  the  good  work  that,  you  have  done  for  your 
country  and  for  mankind  ;  and  to  give  you  our 
best  wishes  for  your  happiness.  For  more  than 
sixty  years  you  have  been  an  author,  and  from  your 
first  publication  to  your  last  you  have  given  to  us 
and  our  children  the  best  thought  and  sentiment  in 
the  purest  language  of  the  English-speaking  race. 
For  more  than  fifty  years  you  have  been  a  journal- 
ist, and  advocated  the  duties  as  well  as  the  rights 
of  men,  with  all  the  genuine  freedom,  without  any 
of  the  license,  of  our  age,  in  an  editorial  wisdom 
that  has  been  a  blessing  to  our  daughters  as  well 
as  our  sons.  You  have  been  a  good  citizen  and 
true  patriot,  ready  to  bear  your  testimony  to  the 
worth  of  your  great  literary  contemporaries,  and 
steadfast  from  first  to  last  in  your  loyalty  to  the 
liberty  and  order  of  the   nation.     You  have  stood 


THE    BRYANT   VASE.  43 

up  manfully  for  the  justice  and  humanity  that  are  the 
hope  of  mankind  and  the  commandment  of  God. 
We  thank  you  for  ourselves,  for  our  children,  for 
our  country,  and  for  our  race,  and  we  commend  you 
to  the  providence  and  grace  of  Him  who  has 
always  been  with  you,  and  who  will  be  with  you 
to  the  end. 

"  We  present  to  you  this  address  of  congratula- 
tion, with  signatures  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  with  the  proposal  of  a  work  of  commemora- 
tive art  that  shall  be  sculptured  with  ideas  and  im- 
ages from  your  poems,  and  be  full  of  the  grateful 
remembrances  and  affections  of  the  friends  who 
love  you  as  a  friend,  and  the  nation  that  honors 
you  as  the  patriarch  of  our  literature." 

Mr.  Bryant  then  made  the  following  brief  and 
evidently  unpremeditated  reply  : 

"Mr.  Sturges  and  Gentlemen  :  I  thank  you 
for  the  kind  words  referring  to  me  in  the  address 
which  has  just  been  read,  and  am  glad  that  you 
find  it  possible  to  speak  of  what  I  have  done  with 
so  much  indulgence.  I  have  lived  long,  as  it  may 
seem  to  most  people,  however  short  the  term  ap- 
pears to  me  when  I  look  back  upon  it.  In  that 
period  have  occurred  various  most  important 
changes,  both  political  and  social,  and  on  the  whole 
I  am  rejoiced  to  say  that  they  have,  as  I  think,  im- 


44  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

proved  the  condition  of  mankind.  The  people 
of  civilized  countries  have  become  more  enlicdit- 
ened  and  enjoy  a  greater  degree  of  freedom.  They 
have  become  especially  more  humane  and  sympa- 
thetic, more  disposed  to  alleviate  each  others'  suf- 
ferings. This  is  the  age  of  charity.  In  our  day 
charity  has  taken  forms  unknown  to  former  ages, 
and  occupied  itself  with  the  cure  of  evils  which 
former  generations  neglected. 

"  I  remember  the  time  when  Bonaparte  filled  the 
post  of  First  Consul  in  the  French  Republic — for 
I  began  early  to  read  the  newspapers.  I  saw  how 
that  republic  grew  into  an  empire  ;  how  that  em- 
pire enlarged  itself  by  successive  conquests  on  all 
sides,  and  how  the  mighty  mass,  collapsing  by  its 
own  weight,  fell  into  fragments.  I  have  seen  from 
that  time  to  this  change  after  change  take  place, 
and  the  result  of  them  all,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is 
that  the  liberties  and  rights  of  the  humbler  classes 
have  been  more  and  more  regarded,  both  in  fram- 
ing and  executing  the  laws.  For  the  greater  part  of 
my  own  eighty  years  it  seemed  to  me,  and  I  think 
it  seemed  to  all,  that  the  extinction  of  slavery  was 
an  event  to  be  accomplished  by  a  remote  posterity. 
But  all  this  time  its  end  was  approaching,  and  sud- 
denly it  sank  into  a  bloody  grave.  The  union  of 
the  Italian  principalities  under  one  head,  and  the 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  40 

breaking  up  of  that  anomaly  in  politics,  the  posses- 
sion of  political  power  by  a  priesthood,  seemed, 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  fourscore  years  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  an  event  belonging  to  a  dis- 
tant and  uncertain  future,  yet  was  it  drawing  near 
by  steps  not  apparent  to  the  common  eyes,  and  it 
came  in  our  own  day.  The  people  of  Italy  willed 
it,  and  the  people  were  obeyed. 

"  There  is  yet  a  time  which  good  men  earnestly 
hope  and  pray  for — the  day  when  the  populations 
of  the  civilized  world  shall  prepare  for  a  universal 
peace  by  disbanding  the  enormous  armies  which 
they  keep  in  camps  and  garrisons,  and  sending  their 
soldiery  back  to  the  fields  and  workshops  from 
which,  if  the  people  were  wise,  their  sovereigns 
never  should  have  withdrawn  them.  Let  us  hope 
that  this  will  be  one  of  the  next  great  changes. 

"  Gentlemen,  again  I  thank  you  for  your  kind- 
ness. I  have  little  to  be  proud  of,  but  when  I  look 
round  upon  those  whom  this  occasion  has  brought 
together,  I  confess  that  I  am  proud  of  my  friends." 

While  Mr.  Bryant  was  speaking,  the  following 
telegram  was  received  from  Governor  Dix  : 

"Albany,  November  3,  1874. 
1 '  To  William  Cidlen  Bryant  : 

"I  unite  with  your  friends  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  cor- 
dial congratulations  on  this  anniversary  of  your  birth. 

"John  A.   Dix." 


46  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  but  a  small  part  of  the 
names  of  the  signers  of  the  address,  but  the  follow- 
ing hasty  and  imperfect  selection  will  indicate  the 
general,  spontaneous,  and  cordial  character  of  their 
token  of  respect,  esteem,  and  friendship  : 

New  York  City  :  Benjamin  G.  Arnold,  George  S.  Appleton, 
Charles  Butler,  James  Brown,  William  A.  Butler,  D.  W.  Bishop, 
O.  B.  Bunce,  P.  T.  Barnum,  Julius  Bing,  Robert  Carter,  J.  D. 
Champlin,  George  S.  Coe,  C.  E.  Detmold,  Bowie  Dash,  W.  J. 
Easton,  Cortlandt  de  P.  Field,  Alfred  H.  Guernsey,  Thomas 
Hillhouse,  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  Rossiter  Johnson,  William 
W.  Kip,  Richard  A.  McCurdy,  Robert  Morris,  L.  P.  Morton, 
W.  N.  McVickar,  R.  Heber  Newton,  George  Opdyke,  William 
Orton,  Richard  Patrick,  O.  H.  Palmer,  Charles  A.  Peabody,  T. 
M.  Peters,  George  Ripley,  John  Cotton  Smith,  Joseph  Seligman, 
Isaac  Sherman,  W.  T.  G.  Shedd,  Philip  SchafT,  C.  C.  Tiffany, 
Hugh  Miller  Thompson,  Sinclair  Tousey,  W.  M.  Vermilye, 
Frederick  S.  Winston,  George  D.  Wildes,  John  E.  Williams, 
James  Grant  Wilson,  Edward  A.  Washburn,  E.  L.  Youmans. 

Brooklyn  :  F.  R.  Schroeder,  H.  B.  Claflin,  E.  H.  R.Lyman, 
Demas  Barnes,  P.  C.  Cornell,  Alden  Wattles,  Charles  P.  Cha- 
pin,  C.  T.  Christensen,  Josiah  O.  Low,  James  A.  Briggs. 

St.  Loin's:  General  William  T.  Sherman,  and  General  Whipple, 
and  Colonels  Audenried  and  Tourtellotte,  of  his  staff;  Wayman 
Crow,  John  R.  Shepley,  James  E.  Yeatman,  S.  T.  Glover, 
Henry  Hitchcock,  Henry  Pomeroy. 

Chicago  :  Lyman  Trumbull,  Robert  Collyer,  David  Swing, 
Horace  White,  W.  E.  Doggett,  Charles  Hitchcock,  Charles  A. 
Dupee,  W.  B.  Ogden,  Wirt  Dexter,  F.  B.  Peabody. 

Philadelphia:  A.  J.  Drexel,  J.  B.  Lippincott,  George  W. 
Childs. 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  47 

Worcester  (Mass.):  Alexander  H.  Bullock,  Joseph  Sargent, 
T.  L.  Nelson,  George  W.  Richardson,  Henry  Chapin,  W.  W. 
Rice,  E.  B.  Stoddard,  Adin  Thayer. 

Williamstown  (Mass.)  :  Mark  Hopkins,  P.  A.  Chadbourne, 
Joseph  White,  Arthur  L.  Perry,  Sanborn  Tenney,  Henry  L. 
Sabin. 

Providence  (R.  I.)  :  Seth  Padleford,  Bishop  Thomas  M. 
Clark. 

Hartford  (Conn.)  :  Joseph  R.  Hawley. 

Neiv  Haven  (Conn.)  :  Charles  R.  Ingersoll,  Noah  Porter. 

Stamford  (Conn.)  :  C.  S.  Henry. 

Catskill  (N.  Y.)  :  Samuel  M.  Cornell. 

Rye  (N.  Y.)  :  R.  R.  Anthony. 

Garden  City  (N.  Y.)  :  John  E.  Irwin. 

Flushing  (N.  Y.)  :  F.  Elliman. 

Troy  (N.  Y.)  :  D.  L.  Boardman. 

Bergen  (N.  J. )  :  George  Z.  Gray,  Thomas  B.  Bickwell. 

Newark  (N.  J.) :  E.  C.  Benedict,  S.  W.  Corwin,  S.  H.  John- 
son. 

Montclair  (N.  J.)  :  J.  Romeyn  Bury,  jr.,  George  H.  Ripley. 

Orange  (N.  J. )  :  Charles  A.  Meguire,  J.  M.  Meredith. 

Rosette  (N.  J.)  :  M.  R.  Hibbard. 

Milburn  (N.  J.) :  J.  R.  Hopkins. 

New  Brunswick  (N.  J. )  :  Oscar  Johnson,  jr. 

Morristown  (N.  J.)  :  John  D.  Stewart. 

Plainfidd  (N.  J.)  :  Frederick  E.  Busby,  R.  B.  Brown. 

Tenafly  (N.  J.)  :  George  F.  Lyman. 

Minnesota  :  Bishop  H.  B.  Whipple. 

Dacotah  :  Bishop  William  H.  Hare. 
Vienna  (Austria) :  John  Jay. 

The  Committee  received  letters  from  Mr.  John 
Taylor  Johnston  and  Rev.  Dr.  H.  C.    Potter,  of 


48  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

their  number,  regretting;  their  unavoidable  absence 
on  the  occasion.     The   following  is  the    letter  of 

o 

Dr.  Potter : 

"Grace  Church  Rectory,) 
Monday  Evening.       ) 

"  Dear  Sir  :  I  am  heartily  sorry  that  to-morrow  is  the  last 
day  of  the  session  of  our  General  Convention,  and  that  my 
engagements  as  Secretary  of  the  House  of  Bishops  will  require 
my  incessant  attention  throughout  the  day. 

"I  cannot,  therefore,  accompany  the  Committee  who  are  to 
wait  upon  Mr.  Bryant,  but  my  sympathies  will  follow  them 
on  their  most  appropriate  and  becoming  errand,  and  I  shall 
account  it  a  kindness  if  you  will  convey  to  Mr.  Bryant  my  con- 
gratulations and  the  expression  of  my  unfeigned  regret  that  I 
am  prevented  from  tendering  them  in  person. 

"  Very  faithfully  yours, 

"H.  C.  POTTER. 

"Jonathan  Sturges,  Esq." 

A  number  of  poems  addressed  to  Mr.  Bryant 
were  also  received  by  the  Committee  ;  among  them 
the  two  following,  the  first  from  Mr.  Charles  K. 
Tuckerman,  now  in  London,  England,  and  the  sec- 
ond from  Rev.  Dr.  Horatio  N.  Powers,  of  Chicago  : 

TO  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT, 

ON    THE    EIGHTIETH    ANNIVERSARY    OF    HIS    BIRTHDAY. 

A  Tribute  from  an  Atnerican  Abroad. 

The  silver  wheels  of  thy  melodious  years 
Have  rolled  thee  to  the  laurel  post  again  : 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  49 

Again  our  eager  hands  renew  the  crown  ; 

Again  our  mingling  voices  utter  thanks. 

We  thank  thee  for  the  plenitude  of  fame 

Which  riseth  o'er  the  landscape  of  thy  life 

Like  the  New  England  pine,  serenely  strong, 

Filling  the  autumn  air  with  scent  of  balm. 

We  thank  thee  for  the  good  thou  hast  conferred 

At  times  when  Poets'  thoughts  are  best  for  man, 

Speeding  the  idle  hour  with  swift  delight, 

Soothing  the  sorrowing  hour  with  calm  of  peace. 

We  thank  thee  in  their  names,  the  weary  ones, 

When,  lying  sleepless  with  solicitude, 

They  have  bethought  them  of  thy  melody — 

Those  unaffected,  simply-flowing  strains, 

So  clear  in  their  conception,  yet  so  vast 

In  comprehensive  wisdom — and  have  risen 

And  sought  the  book,  and  with  thee  moved  awhile 

Over  the  meadows  and  by  running  streams 

And  under  fragrant  boughs  of  singing  trees, 

Till,  lost,  like  children,  in  the  sylvan  scene, 

They've  closed  the  page  and  dreamed  they  had  no  cares. 

Thy  walk  has  ever  been  towards  heaven,  Great  Heart ! 
And  when  thou  goest  in,  methinks  the  sound 
Of  upper  voices  will  accord  with  thine 
As  if  a  missing  tone  were  found  again. 
Even  in  thy  youth,  alone  and  undismayed, 
Fair  Nature  found  thee  on  her  mountain  heights 
Singing  the  songs  of  freedom  :  or  in  groves — 
Those  consecrated  temples  of  thy  choice — 
Chanting  the  unpremeditated  prayer 
Born  of  poetic  faith  and  reverend  love. 
Not  thine  the  dusty-footed  pilgrimage 
4 


5o  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

In  quest  of  inspiration  ;  no  far  clime 

Lends  thee  its  book  of  beauty ;  but  at  home, 

In  the  warm  midst  of  its  familiar  scenes, 

Thy  harp-strings  sing  the  sweetest.     All  around 

The  forms  of  recognition  welcome  thee  : 

The  laughing  rivulet,  with  morning  light, 

"  Comes  singing  down  the  narrow  glen  "  to  thee  ; 

The  water-fowl,   "lone  wandering  but  not  lost," 

Sees  thee  and  feels  no  fear :  at  thy  approach 

The  timorous  squirrel,  busy  with  its  nut, 

Sits  undisturbed  :    "The  century-living  crow  " 

Caws  at  thy  coming — thou,  whose  flight  of  fame 

Shall  far  outdistance  all  his  length  of  years — 

And  to  thy  listening  ear  the  evening  wind, 

With  "  strange  deep  harmonies  "  reveals  itself. 

These  shall  thy  mourners  be  when  thou  art  gone, 

These,  and  the  hearts  of  wild  flowers  and  of  waves, 

These,  and  the  hearts  of  sunbeams  and  of  stars, 

For  these  dost  thou  interpret  unto  man  : 

Drawing  him  closer  to  the  throbbing  breast 

Of  purifying  Nature. 

Not  in  vain 
Doth  her  beneficent  wisdom  lengthen  out 
Thy  days  of  ministration,  for  thy  days 
Are  verses  of  the  everlasting  hymn 
She  teacheth  ever  to  the  hearts  of  those 
Who,   "  to  the  beautiful  order  of  her  works 
Conform,"  like  thee,   "  the  order  of  their  lives." 

London,  October,  1874.  C.  K.  T. 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  5  I 


TO  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT, 

ON    THE    EIGHTIETH    ANNIVERSARY    OF    HIS     BIRTHDAY, 
NOVEMBER    3,     1 874. 

The  sweetest  blossoms  any  bring 
To-day,  to  deck  thy  muse's  throne, 

Are  those  that  out  of  pure  hearts  spring, 
From  seed  thy  fruitful  life  has  sown. 

How  deep  thy  living  thoughts  struck  down 
In  countless  souls  throughout  the  land  ! 

The  splendid  flowers  of  thy  renown 
In  myriad  leaves  of  light  expand. 

They  bloom  in  virtues  strong  and  true, 
In  deeds  that  make  our  kinship  sweet,. 

Chaste  homes,  and  lives  of  spotless  hue, 
In  love  that  serves  with  tireless  feet  ; 

In  patriot  zeal,  in  Honor's  breast ; 

Where  Duty  runs  without  debate  ; 
Where  Nature  feasts  her  reverent  guest, 

And  Faith  waits  calmly  "  at  the  gate>" 

These  garlands  of  the  spirit  live, 
While  festal  splendors  pass  away — 

Millions  their  fadeless  tribute  give 
To  thee,  O  wondrous  seer  !  to-day. 

Thanks  for  thy  pure,  majestic  song. 
Thy  golden  years  o'er  measured  span, 

Thy  valiant  will  to  smite  the  wrong, 
Thy  vast  unconquered  love  of  man. 


52  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

Thanks  for  thy  simple  faith  and  truth  ; 

Thanks  for  thy  wisdom,  deep  and  calm, 
The  freshness  of  thy  generous  youth, 

Thy  life — a  sweet  triumphant  psalm  ! 

Earth's  children  catch  its  strain  sublime, 

As  ages  onward  bear  thy  name, 
And  down  the  glowing  fields  of  time 

The  wise  and  good  reflect  thy  fame  ! 
Chicago,  1874.  Horatio  N.  Powers. 

Mr.  Bryant  was  in  his  place  as  Vice-President 
of  the  Historical  Society  last  evening.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  after  the  reading  of  the  inter- 
esting paper  upon  Historical  Portraits  in  Paris,  by 
Mr.  William  J.  Hoppin,  Mr.  James  W.  Beekman 
moved  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Bryant  for  the 
honor  of  his  presence,  and  of  congratulation  to 
him  upon  reaching  eighty  years  of  age  that  day, 
and  the  whole  audience  accepted  the  resolution 
with  acclamation  and  by  rising. 

At  Chicago,  last  evening,  the  anniversary  was 
celebrated  by  a  "  Bryant  Testimonial  Dinner"  of 
the  Chicago  Literary  Club. — Evening  Post,  Novem- 
ber 4,  1874. 

TRIBUTES  OF  THE  PRESS. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  grateful  tributes 
of  the  American  press  on  the  occasion  : 

[New  York  Times,  November  4.] 
It  is  pleasant  to  turn  from  the  din  of  the  elections  to  an  in- 
teresting social  incident,  which  we  record  with  greater  pleasure 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  53 

than  Democratic  victories.  Yesterday  Mr.  William  Culle'n 
Bryant  completed  his  eightieth  year,  and  received  from  the 
members  of  the  Century  Club  a  congratulatory  address,  ex- 
pressive of  the  esteem  and  affection  with  which  he  is  regarded. 
Nor  are  these  sentiments  confined  to  the  members  of  the  club  ; 
they  are  shared  by  the  general  public,  which  has  long  been 
familiar  with  Mr.  Bryant's  honorable  services  to  the  literature 
of  the  country.  A  life  more  useful  and  industrious,  or  more 
blameless,  has  seldom  been  spent  among  us,  and  we  hope  that 
the  day  is  still  distant  when  it  will  be  brought  to  a  close.  Such 
greetings  as  those  which  Mr.  Bryant  received  yesterday  are 
worth  far  more  to  a  man  than  all  the  wealth  and  official  honors 
in  the  world. 

[New  York  Sun,  November  3.] 

Mr.  William  Cullen  Bryant,  now  the  most  eminent  citizen 
of  this  State,  is  eighty  years  old  to-day,  and,  we  are  happy  to 
say,  is  perfectly  vigorous  and  active  in  mind  and  body.  May  he 
still  be  continued  "waiting  at  the  gate"  among  us  for  many 
years  to  come. 

[New  York  Tribune,  November  4,] 

Yesterday  will  be  a  memorable  date  in  this  country  for  a 
better  reason  than  can  be  found  in  the  defeat  or  success  of 
any  transitory  political  organization  ;  for  on  that  day  William 
Cullen  Bryant  completed  his  eightieth  year.  In  the  joy  with, 
which  his  fellow-citizens  contemplate  the  advance  of  his  serene 
and  glorious  age,  there  is  no  tinge  of  sadness.  No  one  who' 
sees  the  hale  poet  in  his  daily  walks  ever  looks  forward  to  the 
day  when  his  grand  career  will  be  ended.  We  are  forced  to 
disobey  the  precept  of  the  Greek  sage  and  call  this  life  a  happy 
one  before  it  closes.  There  are  no  chances  readily  discernible, 
even  to  the  eye  of  fancy,  which  can  dim  the  tranquil  beauty  of 
the  long  and  rosy  evening  promised  to  this  great  poet  and 


54  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

good  citizen.  His  birthdays  are  kept  as  holidays  in  the  hearts 
of  all  who  know  him,  and  every  succeeding  one  grows  dearer 
and  more  sacred. 

[New  York  Herald,  November  4] 

William  Cullen  Bryant,  the  most  venerable  and  honored 
member  of  the  editorial  profession  in  this  country,  the  first  of 
our  poets,  the  model  of  every  public  and  every  private  virtue, 
completed  his  eightieth  year  yesterday.  We  join  our  congratu- 
lations with  those  of  his  other  admirers  on  an  occasion  of  so 
much  interest.  Mr.  Bryant  has  outlived  Cooper,  our  first 
novelist ;  he  has  outlived  Irving,  our  greatest  master  of  elegant 
prose  ;  he  has  outlived  Jackson,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Webster,  the 
most  gifted  statesmen  who  were  conspicuous  in  the  active 
period  of  his  life  ;  he  has  outlived  Bennett,  and  Greeley,  and 
Noah,  and  Crosswell,  and  Ritchie,  and  Gales  (but  not  Blair, 
who  still  lives  at  an  age  as  advanced  and  with  facilities  as 
vigorous  as  Mr.  Bryant's,  nor  Weed,  who  is  nearly  as  old); 
but  if  several  of  Mr.  Bryant's  distinguished  journalistic  contem- 
poraries, who  were  so  potent  and  so  vigorous  in  the  days  of 
his  prime,  still  survive,  he  is  the  only  one  of  them  who  retains 
an  active  connection  with  journalism.  Mr.  Blair  dissolved  his 
editorial  relation  to  the  Globe  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  and  re- 
tired to  Silver  Spring.  It  is  some  thirteen  or  fourteen  years 
since  Mr.  Weed  retired  from  the  Albany  Journal  and  Mr.  Webb 
from  the  Courier  and  Enquirer,  so  that  Mr.  Bryant  is  the  oldest 
editor  in  the  United  States  who  retains  his  connection  with 
the  press.  We  tender  him  our  sincere  congratulations  on  this 
anniversary,  and  recognize  him  as  the  most  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  editorial  profession  in  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Bryant's  reputation  is  less  ephemeral  than  if  it  rested  on  his 
services  as  a  journalist.  His  is  one  of  the  most  important 
names   in   American   literature,   as  well  as   in   American  jour- 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  55 

nalism,  and  the  tasteful  compliment  paid  him  yesterday,  in  the 
presentation  of  a  costly  and  appropriately  engraved  vase,  was  a 
tribute  to  his  literary  eminence,  the  only  character  in  which  he 
will  be  much  known  to  posterity.  His  vigorous  editorials  in 
the  Evening  Pod  for  so  many  years  merely  influenced  the  pass- 
ing opinions  of  the  day ;  but  his  best  poems  will  be  read  and 
loved  long  after  the  transient  politics  of  Mr.  Bryant's  time  are 
forgotten.  In  celebrating  his  eightieth  birthday  we  recognize 
the  superior  luster  of  purely  literary  merits  ;  but  if  Mr.  Bryant 
himself  were  to  pronounce  on  his  own  career  we  have  little 
doubt  that  he  would  give  the  preference  to  his  patriotic  attempts 
to  serve  the  country  as  a  journalist. 

[New  York  Graphic,  November  2.] 
To-morrow,  the  eightieth  birthday  of  William  Cullen  Bryant 
will  be  remembered  by  his  numerous  friends  in  a  manner  at 
once  unique  and  creditable.  They  have  contributed  some 
five  thousand  dollars  for  a  vase  of  original  design  and  choice 
workmanship,  artistically  representing  the  lessons  of  his  career, 
in  its  literary,  political,  and  journalistic  relations,  and  the  vase 
will  be  placed  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  The 
money  has  been  contributed  by  gentlemen  in  other  cities  as  well 
as  our  own,  and  the  testimonial  will  be  the  spontaneous  expres- 
sion of  public  respect  and  veneration  for  our  oldest  living  poet. 
Charles  Sprague  is  his  senior  by  several  years,  but  Sprague  has 
written  comparatively  little,  and  has  scarcely  more  than  a  local 
fame.  Whittier  is  thought  of  as  one  of  our  oldest  poets,  but 
he  was  born  in  the  same  year  as  Longfellow,  and  both  were 
mere  schoolboys  when  "  Thanatopsis  "  was  written.  Greeley 
was  Bryant's  junior  by  seventeen  years,  and  was  a  printer  on 
the  paper  after  Mr.  Bryant  became  editor.  He  was  born  during 
the  administration  of  Washington,  and  his  life  covers  all  the 
literature  of  the  country  that  anybody  cares  to  remember.     His 


56  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

own  works  are  among  the  best  productions  of  the  American 
mind,  and  whatever  he  may  think  of  "Thanatopsis  " — which 
was  written  in  his  nineteenth  year — it  is  one  of  the  few  Ameri- 
can poems  that  the  people  will  never  let  die.  * 

Mr.  Bryant  has  been  connected  with  New  York  journalism 
for  half  a  century,  first  as  editor  of  the  New  York  Review,  and 
next  as  editor  of  the  Evening  Post.  Of  his  signal  ability,  in- 
dustry, and  other  journalistic  qualities,  it  is  needless  to  remark. 
They  are  well  known,  and  have  gained  for  him  the  respect  of 
the  country.  His  paper  early  won  a  high  place  for  its  literary 
merit,  its  sound  judgment  on  financial  questions,  its  courtesy 
towards  opponents,  and  its  high  moral  tone.  Mr.  Bryant 
early  became  a  champion  of  the  free-trade  policy.  His 
paper  represented  the  best  Democratic  sentiment  of  the  city 
for  a  long  period  of  years,  and  only  broke  with  that  party  to 
support  the  Republicans  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  And 
though  he  has  written  little  for  it  of  late  years,  the  character 
he  gave  it  and  the  honorable  traditions  affixed  to  its  name  by 
his  conduct,  give  it  an  influence  far  out  of  proportion  to  its  in- 
tellectual weight  or  circulation.  It  is  one  of  the  institutions  of 
New  York,  and  the  new  building,  now  in  process  of  erection, 
will  stand  as  a  fitting  monument  of  his  industrious  and  honor- 
able career.  It  is  a  pity  that  a  niche  is  not  reserved  in  its  walls 
for  his  statue,  as  his  name  will  be  identified  with  the  paper  while 
it  is  published.  But  Mr.  Bryant  has  been  more  than  a  journalist. 
He  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the  movements  of  the  day,  and 
most  important  charities  of  the  city.  His  life  has  been  pure, 
and  his  influence  high-toned  and  honorable.  His  character  is 
a  precious  possession,  and  his  life  teaches  a  lesson  of  temperance 

and  virtue. 

[  The  Independent. \ 

Sir  Walter  Scott  relates  that,  when  some  one  was  mentioned 
as  a  "fine  old  man"  to  Dean  Swift,  he  exclaimed  with  violence 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  Sj 

that  there  was  no  such  thing.  "If  the  man  you  speak  of  had 
either  a  mind  or  a  body  worth  a  farthing  they  would  have  worn 
him  out  long  ago."  Voltaire,  Goethe,  Lyndhurst,  Brougham, 
Beranger,  Humboldt,  Palmerston,  Guizot,  Moltke,  and  among 
Americans,  Adams,  Taney,  Winfield  Scott,  Horace  Binney, 
Richard  H.  Dana,  may  be  cited  in  refutation  of  this  theory, 
which,  we  presume,  has  nothing  to  do  with  thews  or  stature. 
But  if  we  wanted  another  bright  and  brilliant  example  of  facul- 
ties, and  faculties  of  a  high  order,  remaining  unimpaired  in 
mind  and  body  till  long  past  the  grand  climacteric,  we  might 
name  William  Cullen  Bryant,  the  patriarch  of  American  poetry, 
who,  on  Tuesday,  November  3,  completed  his  "fourscore  years," 
cheerful  and  happy  and  full  of  conversation,  and  continuing 
to  heartily  enjoy  what  Dr.  Johnson  happily  calls  "the  sunshine 
of  life." 

No  name  in  our  contemporaneous  literature,  either  in  England 
or  in  America,  is  crowned  with  more  successful  honors  than  that 
of  William  Cullen  Bryant.  Born  at  a  period  when  our  colonial 
literature,  like  our  people,  was  but  recently  under  the  dominion 
of  Great  Britain,  he  has  lived  to  see  that  literature  expand  from 
its  infancy  and  take  a  proud  place  in  the  republic  of  letters,  and 
survived  to  see  the  Republic  itself,  starting  from  its  revolutionary 
birth,  spring  up  to  a  giant  power,  after  passing  triumphantly 
through  a  giant  rebellion.  Surrounded  by  such  historical  and 
heroic  associations,  men  who  survive  them  embody  in  their  lives 
the  annals  of  a  people,  and  represent  in  their  individuality  the 
history  of  a  nation. 

What  Macaulay  said  of  Charles,  Earl  Grey — alluding  to  his 
having  survived  all  the  great  statesmen  contemporaneous  with 
him — might  with  equal  propriety  be  applied  to  Bryant  and  his 
contemporaries  :  "  He  is  the  sole  surviving  link  of  an  age  which 
has  passed  away."  Bryant  saw  Cooper,  in  the  full  glory  of  his 
renown,  lead  the  host  of  historic  names  in  our  national  literature, 


58  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

and  then  followed  in  succession  to  an  honored  tomb  by  Irving, 
Prescott,  Paulding,  Halleck,  Simms,  and  Kennedy.  The  orator 
on  the  occasion  of  the  funeral  honors  paid  to  the  pioneer  of 
American  novelists,  Mr.  Bryant,  was  associated  in  the  perform- 
ance of  those  rites  wiih  the  renowned  Webster,  and  the  hall 
which  had  resounded  with  applause  to  the  eloquence  of  Kossuth 
and  to  the  matchless  melodies  of  Jenny  Lind,  re-echoed  the 
brilliant  poetic  periods  of  Bryant  in  commemoration  of  his  con- 
temporary and  friend,  Fenimore  Cooper. 

Pursuing  to  the  age  of  fourscore  an  active  literary  career,  the 
poet  has  been  a  co-laborer  in  all  worthy  movements  to  promote 
the  advancement  of  the  arts  and  literature.  A  liberal  patron  of 
art  himself,  he  has  always  been  the  eloquent  advocate  of  the 
claims  of  artists.  Mr.  Bryant,  on  its  completion,  a  few  years 
ago,  delivered  the  address  inaugurating  the  beautiful  temple  to 
art  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Design.  Foremost  in  the  lit- 
erary circle  of  his  adopted  city,  he  is  President  of  the  Century 
Club — a  time-honored  institution  of  New  York — numbering 
among  the  poet's  predecessors  Gulian  C.  Verplanck  and  George 
Bancroft,  and  embracing  among  its  members  men  of  letters, 
artists,  and  leading  gentlemen  of  the  liberal  professions.  Philan- 
thropic in  his  nature,  Mr.  Bryant  has  been  the  consistent  pro- 
moter of  all  objects  having  for  their  tendency  the  elevation  and 
furtherance  of  the  interests  of  humanity.  Connected  with  one 
of  the  leading  metropolitan  journals,  and  one  of  the  oldest  in  the 
United  States,  he  is  enabled  to  bring  the  powerful  influence  of 
the  press  to  bear,  with  his  own  personal  influence  and  literary 
renown,  upon  whatever  measure  he  supports  in  the  cause  of 
philanthropy,  letters,  and  the  promotion  of  arts. 


Some  men  seem  gifted  of  Nature  with  the  very  purple  bloom 
of  immortality — in  their  youth  old  and  wise  beyond  their  years, 
and  retaining  in  their  age  the  warm  lire  and  young  vigor  of  early 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  59 

manhood.  Their  boyhood  anticipates  the  wisdom  of  years,  and 
their  years  retain  the  freshness  of  youth.  "I  have  often  won- 
dered," said  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  his  address  on  the  last  day 
of  the  convention  which  framed  our  Constitution,  "whether 
yonder  picture  on  the  wall  represents  the  rising  or  the  setting 
sun."  And,  had  we  not  the  calendar  of  his  years  to  inform  us, 
we  should  have  been  in  doubt  whether  the  "  Thanatopsis" 
might  not  be  the  meditation  of  William  Cullen  Bryant's  age  and 
the  Homeric  translations  the  work  of  his  vigorous  youth.  Poets 
make  age  the  climax  of  hopeless  evil.  Gray  saw  before  the 
heedless  schoolboy  sickness,  poverty,  famine,  and  worst  and  last 
of  all,  "slow,  consuming  age  ;  "  and  Milton,  in  his  last  years, 
hunted  and  dishonored,  knew  but  one  thing  more  pitiful  : 

"Blind  among  enemies,  O  worse  than  chains, 
Dungeon,  or  beggary,  or  decrepit  age  !  " 

But  by  some  strange  favor  of  Heaven  we  see  now  and  then  a 
son  of  the  gods  who  in  his  cradle  has  the  strength  to  strangle 
serpents,  and  whose  unconsuming  years  seem  to  feed  on  the 
ambrosia  of  perpetual  youth. 

On  our  first  page  we  have  given,  through  our  contributors,  our 
good  hail  on  his  eightieth  birthday  to  the  still  youthful  veteran 
poet  and  journalist  of  America.  Here  we  need  say  little  more 
than  to  tender  to  him  most  heartily  our  own  congratulations 
and  those  of  all  our  readers,  and  to  tell  him  how  warmly  his 
countrymen  respect  and  love  him. 

Much  as  we  admire  the  poet  whose  verse  made  him  many 
years  ago  the  first  of  our  bards,  we  would  mention  it  as  his  espe- 
cial honor  that  he  has  not  been  satisfied  with  beauty  or  senti- 
ment, but  has,  like  England's  blind  poet,  made  himself  a  man 
of  affairs,  and  has  been  a  wise  counsellor  in  the  conduct  of  the 
State.  If  he  has  been  known  for  sixty-two  years  as  a  poet,  he 
has  been  an  editor  for  forty-nine  years,  and  his  first  published 


60  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

political  paper  was  written  sixty-seven  years  ago.  Other  poets 
have  not  forgotten  that  they  were  citizens.  Longfellow  for  a 
year  or  two  sang  songs  of  freedom,  asking — 

'*  What  holy  angel 


Brings  the  slave  this  glad  evangel  ?  " 

and  Whittier,  most  like  Bryant,  was  for  many  years  an  editor 
and  active  philanthropist ;  but  in  the  case  of  no  other  of  our 
writers  have  poetry  and  politics  held  the  scale  in  such  even 
balance.  The  first  political  paper  of  his,  "The  Embargo,"  a 
satire  in  verse,  was  the  prophecy  of  his  life.  The  Evening  Post, 
the  wisest  and  soundest  of  all  our  newspapers,  the  most  influen- 
tial certainly  of  our  afternoon  press,  has  long  been  edited  by 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  with  whom  Iliads,  and  Congresses,  and 
reconstructions,  and  impeachments,  and  Odysseys,  seem  to  be 
objects  of  impartial  interest.  For  this  we  especially  admire  him 
— for  that  completeness  of  taste  and  culture,  too  rare  in  America, 
which  unites  a  care  for  the  public  weal  with  a  love  for  letters  and 
learning.  Were  our  men  of  culture  generally  to  take  Milton 
and  Bryant  as  their  examples,  we  should  have  less  reason  to 
complain  of  the  corruption  of  public  life. 

Personally,  Mr.  Bryant  is  known  to  the  American  people  as 
a  poet.  As  a  poet  his  monument  will  ever  be  their  affectionate 
respect.  Nothing  more  can  a  poet  ask.  But  a  journalist  is  a 
man  without  personality.  His  identity  is  swallowed  up  in  his 
paper.  As  a  journalist,  Mr.  Bryant's  fitting  memorial  will  be 
that  more  material  but  less  substantial  one,  the  fine  building  on 
Broadway  erecting  for  the  Evening  Post.  Waiting  and  hoping 
for  the  time  when  our  own  journal  shall  be  similarly  provided 
for,  we  heartily  congratulate  both  the  excellent  veteran  paper 
and  the  excellent  veteran  editor  on  this  proof  of  wise  manage- 
ment and  public  appreciation,  and  hope  that  the  time  is  not 
near  when  William  Cullen   Bryant  shall   cease  to  sharpen  his 


THE    BRYANT   VASE.  6 1 

youthful  quill  in  rebuke  of  the  follies  of  false  statecraft,  or  shall 
forget  the  cunning  which  has  taught  him  to  paint  the  grace  of 
running  brooks  and  the  majesty  of  forest  trees. 

May  the  October  of  his  life  be  that  which  he  has  himself 
described  : 

"  Wind  of  the  sunny  South  !  oh.  still  delay 
In  the  gay  woods  and  in  the  golden  air, 
Like  to  a  good  old  age  released  from  care, 

Journeying,  in  long  serenity,  away. 

In  such  a  bright,  late  quiet  would  that  I 

Might  wear  out  life  like  thee,  'mid  bowers  and  brooks, 
And,  dearer  yet,  the  sunshine  of  kind  looks 

And  music  of  kind  voices  ever  nigh  ! 

And,  when  my  last  sand  twinkled  in  the  glass, 

Pass  silently  from  men,  as  thou  dost  pass." 

[Troy  Times,  November  3.] 

This  is  the  eightieth  birthday  of  the  venerable  poet  and 
editor,  William  Cullen  Bryant.  We  are  glad  to  hear  that  his 
friends  are  to  commemorate  the  event  by  the  presentation  of  a 
valuable  and  artistically  designed  vase.  Few  men  have  lived 
so  long  as  Mr.  Bryant  with  equal  blamelessness  and  honor. 
We  are  glad  to  know  that  he  is  still  hale  and  hearty,  and 
promises  to  remain  with  us  for  some  time  to  come. 

[Rochester  Express,  November  3.] 

William  Cullen  Bryant,  the  venerable  and  distinguished  poet, 
becomes  an  octogenarian  to-day.  Mr.  Bryant  is  one  of  the 
purest  and  noblest  of  Americans.  Achieving  fame,  while  still 
a  young  man,  by  that  poem  of  solemn  beauty,  "  Thanatopsis," 
he  has,  during  a  long  life,  stood  before  the  world  exemplifying 
in  his  character  and  his  works  the  truest  qualities  of  manhood 


62J  j  THE    BRYANT    VASE. 

and  genius.  During  the  formative  period  of  our  literary  history 
he  gave  to  his  countrymen  an  example  of  thought  and  style 
which,  by  its  purity  and  elegance,  first  afforded  a  rebuking 
contrast  to  the  buncombe  and  spread-eagleism  of  our  early 
writings,  and  then,  with  the  writings  of  Washington  Irving  and 
others  of  his  class,  steadily  and  surely  permeated  American 
thought,  and  won  admirers  and  imitators  among  our  aspirants 
for  literary  fame,  until  a  higher  and  truer  school  of  authorship 
was  created.  Bryant  does  not  rank  among  the  greatest  writers, 
but  few  excel  him  in  purity  of  thought  and  expression.  For 
him  the  world  of  thoughtful  readers  entertain  a  sincere  affec- 
tion, and  though  his  works  that  will  go  far  into  the  future  are 
few,  yet  there  are  passages  and  even  entire  poems  that  have  the 
gift  and  destiny  of  immortal  fame. 

Long  as  the  poet  has  been  among  us,  yet  hale  and  vigorous 
he  enters  upon  the  ninth  decade  of  life,  and  from  two  conti- 
nents will  pour  in  upon  him  congratulations  for  his  lengthened 
life,  and  sincere  wishes  that  it  may  be  prolonged  until  he  and 
his  friends  may  celebrate  his  centennial. 

[Boston  Transcript,   November  3.] 

William  Cullen  Bryant,  poet,  patriot,  editor,  man  of  letters ; 
the  American  citizen,  whom  all  American  citizens  honor  for 
his  blameless  private  and  his  fruitful  public  life  ;  still  in  the 
possession  of  unabated  natural  and  acquired  mental  and  moral 
forces  ;  still  active  in  a  venerableness  that  surpasses  the  beauty 
of  youth  and  manhood,  to  the  eyes  of  troops  of  loving  and 
revering  friends,  to-day  becomes  an  octogenarian.  It  is  an 
occasion  that  will  be  gratefully  seized  upon  to  extend  to  him 
warm  and  rich  testimonials  of  regard,  expressed  in  words  of 
affectionate  respect  and  in  significant  and  artistic  symbolic 
gifts. 

Independent,  upright,  a  lover  of  truth  and  beauty,  of  charac- 


THE    BRYANT    VASE.  63 

ter  unstained,  gradually  closing  a  long  career  whose  evening 
has  gathered  up  and  preserved  not  a  little  of  the  fair  light  and 
brilliancy  of  its  midday — he  merits  indeed  an  anniversary  to  be 
rendered  truly  golden,  in  his  native  and  in  other  lands,  by 
esteem  for  a  manifold  greatness,  of  unquestioned  integrity,  free 
from  all  low  ambitions,  full  to  overflowing  with  usefulness  to 
his  times  and  humanity,  by  the  prolonged  manifestations  of 
genius  consecrated  to  high  aims,  and  the  work  of  talents  and 
learning  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  whatever  contributes  to 
the  genuine  nobility,  the  sterling  virtues,  and  the  refined  adorn- 
ments to  true  living  ;  a  vigorous  and  almost  saintly  patriarch, 
whose  silver  locks  need  no  crown  of  gold  and  jewels  to  make 
him  a  king  among  his  fellows,  by  reason  of  the  divinity  of  his 
unwearied  and  multiform  faithfulness. 

[Boston  Advertiser,  November  3.] 

TO  BRYANT  AT  FOURSCORE. 

Born  November  3,  1794. 

Psalm  xc.  10. 

Poet,  whose  voice  is  of  the  winds  and  woods, 
Whose  calm  verse  flows  as  does  the  mountain  rill, 
Rippling  and  murmuring  through  the  shade  and  sheen, 
And  o'er  the  cool,  clean  stone  ; 
Poet,  whose  voice  is  of  the  ocean  floods, 
When  thou  dost  hear,  along  the  wooded  hill, 
The  footsteps  of  the  Lord,  and  thou  may'st  lean 

To  listen,  stilled,  alone — 
Nature's  Interpreter — the  wind,  the  stream,  the  tree, 
The  human  soul,  all  find  a  friend  in  thee. 

Thine  is  the  music  of  the  fountain's  flow, 
Or  Autumn's  wind,  fresh  in  the  fading  tree  : 
Men  quicken  at  thy  word  ;  they  feel  thee  nigh — 
One  dear  to  childhood's  day. 
Thou  art  a  stream  born  of  the  mountain  snow, 


64  THE    BRYANT   VASE. 

Which  sought,  unsoiled,  the  city  by  the  sea, 
Winding  where  fair  things  fail  and  pure  things  die  ; 

And  springing,  white  with  spray, 
A  fountain  where,  despite  the  multitudinous  tread, 
Faith  is  refreshed  and  faint  hearts  comforted. 

Bryant !  thy  word  is  best  when  thou  dost  write 
Of  life,  of  hopes,  of  human  destiny — 
Of  the  grave  joy  which  keeps  the  heart  content — 
Of  Nature's  constant  calm  ! 
Comforter,  thou  dost  show  the  Infinite  ! 
Thou  dost  unseal  the  fount  when  eyes  are  dry 
And  hearts  are  breaking !     Thy  wise  words  are  blent 

With  weeping ;  and  a  Psalm 
Of  Life  goes  up,  and  not  unheard  :   while  thou  dost  sing, 
Hearts  grateful,  though  unseen,  shall  listen  lingering. 

So  shall  men  listen  when  all  these  are  gone  : 
Still  shalt  thou  sing  when  the  invisible  vail 
Hath  wrapped  thee  from  man's  vision.     Lightly  lie 
On  thee  thy  years  fourscore  ! 
In  thine  eternal  youth  thou  shalt  sing  on  ; 
Thy  strain,  a  voice  of  Nature,  shall  not  fail ; 
And  thee  labor  and  sorrow  come  not  nigh  ! 

But  when  the  silent  oar 
Of  Charon  stirs,  not  too  late  or  soon,  that  voiceless  sea, 
Wake  to  thy  twofold  immortality. 

H.  C.  B. 


